SAHM's Place

How's the new year treatin' ya so far? :-)

2012-01-20T09:49:00.005-06:00

We're staying busy here, as usual! :-)

I'm working on early early spring cleaning around the house, got a new bookshelf a few days ago for the piano room where the kids hang out to play, set up a new reading area with lots more space. Love watching the kids sprawled out on the pillows/giant stuffed animals reading to themselves or each other. Does this retired reading teacher's heart good! :-)

Big news so far--we're going on a cruise in August! I can't wait! :-) It's the biggest luxury ocean liner *in the world*, called the "Allure of the Seas" from Royal Caribbean. DH and I took a honeymoon cruise when we first got married (4 days, 3 nights, then another 3 days in Florida back then) and we loved it soooooo much, we've been wanting to go on another one since then but of course so much has happened over the years and we either didn't have time to go, or financially we had other things to take care of (Australia/India trip).

This time it was my turn to choose the vacation, and when Kate Gosselin tweeted a few weeks ago that she was going to host a cruise(AND a personal tweet from her inviting me and Maya to go! :-), I thought, how cool is that! Not really thinking about going at all, but thinking, I'd love to meet her and my fellow cyber BFFs from Twitter in person! ;-) Checked out the travel agency site, then the RC website, and saw that the prices were doable for us! It's in August, the absolutely hottest month of the year here in Texas (thank GOD for air conditioning!) for 7 days, 6 nights, so that's perfect. A couple of ports we'd visited before, some are new to us.

Bazillion activities for the kids to see and do? Check. Cool engineering stuff for DH to ogle over? Check. ;-) Time off for me and DH? Check! ;-) Then the travel agency offering a dozen or more activities with Kate? KEWL. Maya and I were talking about all the fun stuff they've got planned and she said she would love to meet Kate too...later on was telling DH about the cruise and he rolled his eyes at first about meeting Kate (not a celebrity person unless it has to do with sports, LOL), but when I described the ship and activities he really started to listen, and he told me to check into the pricing and airfare, which turned out to be a deal we couldn't beat! ;-) How much would round trip tickets normally cost a family of 5 from Texas to Fort Lauderdale, Florida? Cheapest we could find was $1260, not counting baggage fees, taxes, 9-11 fees, etc.! YIKES!! :-O

DH quickly checked his miles on our credit card, and was surprised at how many he had...all that traveling he's done all over the world has added up! Using just a *portion* of his miles, our entire family's roundtrip airfare comes to...are you ready for this???

ZERO dollars. $0000. NADA. Free flights for all of us, plus he still has plenty of miles left for a free round trip ticket in case he needs to go to India in an emergency! Beauty mate! ;-) And THANK YOU, JESUS! :-)

He's had some deadlines the past few weeks, so late hours at work, so we hadn't had a chance to sit down and compare prices with a cruise without the KG stuff until last weekend. He was pretty much sold on the idea of the cruise itself, and the ship...after we got comparable prices from a different travel agency, there was only a couple hundred dollars difference! Even he was surprised, because he thought celebrity cruises cost a lot more. He said, call Charlene (great travel agent sponsoring the cruise who really worked with us to get a great deal for the whole family!) and make this happen! Turned out the 'cheaper' price was $1575 per person. The travel agency's rate came to $1660 per person! Of course, only Maya and I are going to the Kate activities, by my figuring that came to about ~$35 or so per event. We've gone to book signings and shows that cost a whole lot more than that! Thanks to God for working this out for all of us to have a great time! My family gets a vacation, we get to meet Kate (God willing)and her "Tweeties" ;-) and Kate gets to earn some extra income for herself and her family. Win-win all around!

Now to get myself back in shape...NOT that I want to wear a bikini, LOL. It's been a long journey these past 17 years, too much extra weight due to all the autoimmune issues/Hashimoto's, infertility meds, miscarriages, pregnancies, surgeries, etc. Can't wait to be able to stretch without hurting, and to run in a spring fun run with Maya! With this extra weight dragging me down, it's hard to do all the physical things I want to do.:-( Waiting to hear back from dr. about b/w from a few days ago, we had a nice talk about the best way to lose weight (I originally wanted to try Medifast, but he said why spend all that money on something you can do yourself? True!) and it's early but I think the suggestions he gave me are working, I'm a couple pounds less than I was earlier this week already! And now much more motivated to lose weight instead of just being a mom for the kids; looking after myself for a change and I feel pretty good about losing even those first few pounds! :-)

My goal weight is to get back to where I was when we were married in '94, and when I got to go to India for the first time around 140-145 lbs. That's where I felt my best, and where many of my clothes are waiting for me in the closet! Looking forward to heavy duty exercising again at 24 Hr Fitness too--I finally have feeling in the nerve endings around the surgery/C-Section scars and I can actually tuck in my tummy for the first time since the twins were born and do basic stomach crunches! Not much, but it's a start. One step at a time, one day at a time! :-) Haven't decided if I want to hire a trainer or not yet though, to help me reach these goals.

Here's a picture from our Indian wedding reception, one of my favorites, not full length, I need to find my picture album with the rest for my goal pic. I also need to find my album from our honeymoon cruise, a couple of those pictures will be my goal pictures too! :-)

Okay, breakfast and catching up time is over, got some laundry (as ALWAYS!) to fold and put away, then a bunch of paperwork/mail sorting...looks like another spring-type day here, gonna take the kids to the park in a little bit and let them run amock there as they are wont to do, LOL. We so love our big park in our front yard!

Again, all the glory to God for all the blessings He has bestowed on me and my family! :*) And as always, praying for those who have not done well/are not doing well with their lives and need God! Praying they find Him soon. :*)

By the way, here's the links to the travel agency for the Kate Gosselin cruise on the "Allure of the Seas"... http://www.kategosselincruise.com Maybe we'll see you there in August! :-)

Happy New Year 2012! :-)

2012-01-01T02:48:00.000-06:00

Hope everyone had a wonderful and safe New Year's Eve celebration with your family and friends! May God bless you and yours most abundantly in the upcoming year. :-)

The Lord bless you and keep you
The Lord make His Face shine upon you
And give you Peace
And give you Peace
And give you Peace forever!

UPDATE: A miracle of sorts!!!

2011-11-28T11:15:00.000-06:00

Finally have time to update after a busy past few days. Here we were grieving that the kids were about to lose their paternal grandmother in India any day...when we got good news from DH!

He flew back to his childhood home to visit with his mom, thinking it might be his LAST visit with her, and while he was there, they learned that some new tests she'd had at the hospital showed SHE DIDN'T HAVE CANCER, Stage IV or ANY kind!! There had been some sort of mixup at the hospital lab, her records were mixed up with another patient with either a similar or same name...shaking my head at all the pain and suffering she's gone through! She didn't need a mastectomy, which means she wouldn't have broken her shoulder from falling on that side, she didn't need to emotional grief of thinking she didn't have long to live...praise God we know all this now, and we are so grateful for this miracle! Although she still has a lot of health issues and needs a lot of prayers still. We are also praying for the person who was told they did NOT have cancer, who will find out now that they don't have long to live. :*(

Some people have said they should sue, but unfortunately India isn't like America and cases like this drag on for years because of corruption, and are very VERY expensive for regular people to fight. Sadly, probably nothing will happen to help my MIL out, I hope the hospital at least will give some free treatment or something for her from now on!

Thanks to all of you who were praying for my MIL. Prayers came true, although not in quite the way we were expecting! God is so good!! :-)

Post-Thanksgiving Ruminations & Musings

2011-11-25T22:07:00.000-06:00

We survived another Thanksgiving! Maya was adamant about being in charge of the cooking this year since we were going to be home for a change. She wrote out her menu, gathered everything she needed when we went shopping at the grocery story (so cute to watch her comparing prices and quantities of various items!), did some preparation on Wednesday evening, making some pies and cookies, then on Thursday getting the turkey all ready for cooking and making stuffing and misc. vegetables and rolls for the dinner. Planned it for 5:30 or so, and kept to her timetable! Her friend helped out a lot with both the food prep AND playing with the twins who think of her as "another sister", says Sarah, LOL. Turkey turned out perfect (never used this brand before, but it was great! "Honeysuckle White") and the food and desserts and company were just wonderful Only thing missing was DH! :-(

"Nana"

He has gone home to India to be with his parents. His mom's cancer is out of control, and the hospital where she had been for awhile has sent her home for hospice care--meaning, they can't do anything more for her, no chemo, no radiation or anything. Pain meds and a 24/7 nurse are keeping her 'comfortable', thank God. Please keep her and my FIL (over 80) in your prayers as they deal with this final stage of her life. Even though she and I were not close as far as mother and daughters in law go, I do love her and wish that her transition from this life to the next is as painfree and non-traumatic as possible. Pray for my DH as well, this is overwhelming news to him, on top of his very busy work schedule. You always assume your parents are going to be there forever in some little childish corner of your heart, don't you? Seeing the truth is going to be devastating to him, I'm afraid. :*( I just wish we could be there to comfort all of them, but we'll have to pray from this long distance. Pray also for Maya, she loves her Nana and is very upset that she'll never get to see her again. The twins don't remember her, but we have a lot of videos and pictures from last year's trip to India to share with them when they are older, thank God!

Around the house, working on a MAJOR project--sorting through double-digit tubs of clothing and baby items to donate to a family in need...whenever folks would send us clothes, etc. that the twins couldn't wear yet, I'd just put'em in a tub, and store'em in the nursery closet...now that the twins have had a growth spurt in the past month or so, I wanted to pull out 'new' clothes for them to wear...what a mixup of sizes in all the tubs! Then I had Maya go through all her clothes and pull the ones she's outgrown or won't wear...got them all down in the family room so I could separate them out. With the holidays it's taking me awhile, but nearly finished! After catching up on this blog, I've got about an hour or so of folding and putting into tubs to go, then the clothes that are too small for the twins will go to the needy family, and the rest will go back up into the nursery closet, this time in labeled tubs so we don't miss out on all the cute clothes waiting to be worn! I just hate coming across some outfit that I love that was misplaced, and now can't be worn, wah!

Pebbles is calling me...she's turned into such a spoiled girl, LOL. Only took her over a decade to decide, hey, those people are planning to keep me around and spoil me! :-) Sarah really loves her kitty cat, loves listening to Pebbles 'sing' (purring) and Sam enjoys watching Pebbles when she's struck by a silly mood chasing a string or toy around. ;-) Hard to believe this cat will be 15 in February 2012!!

Good night, sleep tight, and if you survived Black Friday today, God bless you, I hope you got a lot of good bargains for your trouble! ;-)

I'm Thankful For...

2011-11-20T17:34:00.000-06:00

My precious, God-given family. They are all gifts from God to me! :*)

My handsome husband & me

2011-11-06T01:52:00.000-05:00

We finally got around to getting some professional family pictures taken last week! They turned out really good! Got our Christmas photocards made at the same time, now all I need to do is get some Christmas themed stamps and address all the envelopes, and we're good to go! :-)

My early Christmas gift is going to be a large picture of the 3 kids together, framed in a lovely white wooden frame, to put over our fireplace. Can't wait until it's ready to pick up! I'll try to scan some of the other pictures when I can, the kids are just way too cute in them! :-) I have such a perfect family and life, thank you, God for Your many blessings! :*)

Best.50th.Birthday.I.Ever.Had :*)

2011-10-05T00:26:00.003-05:00

DH just gave me a dozen yellow roses, this romantic birthday card, and this bracelet and earrings he purchased when he was in Singapore a few weeks ago...those are silver with real pearls and semi-precious stones! Beautiful shades of purple, pink and white variety of beads and gems and pearls. Wow. I'm gonna have to hide these from Maya, I can already tell! Maybe even Sarah, because "Purple is my favorite color!" Of course, EVERY color is her favorite color, LOL. Both girls love gemstones, though, so now we have a new family heirloom to share.

So anyway...today was a big milestone for me, 50 years old! I remember when I was a kid, writing down dates and figuring out how old I'd be in the year 2001, 2011--all the decades ending in '1' like my birth year. I remember thinking how very OLD 50 sounded...but now that I'm here, it doesn't FEEL that old! Guess 50 really is the new 40? ;-)

The day started out great. Maya greeted me with "Happy birthday, Mom!" Of course the twins, who love birthdays now, started shouting, "Happy birthday, Mom!!" too...Sam wouldn't stop, even after I kept saying thank you, then I realized what he was waiting for..."Happy birthday, Sam!" He smiled a great big smile and went to play with his trains after that, LOL. Mission accomplished! ;-)

The twins had a really good day! They are so much into imagination games now, I crack up silently listening to them sometimes. :-) Sam loves shows like "Wonder Pets" and "Kai Lan" and "Blue's Clues" and I'll hear him say, "Let's play a game, Googah! I'll tell you the clues and you solve the mickery!" (They can't say their s's, so that's what mystery comes out as)...then they are both busy busy kids 'solving their mickery'. Too cute!

Maya came home with more birthday greetings (BTW, the kids got me one of those Scentsy-type candle burner thingies, only the generic version, I love it! Got vanilla wax too, so homey and lovely smelling!), and as usual was very helpful with the twins...both of her neighborhood best friends came over with gifts for me, which I wasn't expecting. One brought a very nice leather purse with lots of storage pockets, which I always need; the other brought a beautiful delicate vase full of a variety of lovely flowers she had picked from their garden. So sweet of them to remember me! :*)

Later we were going to meet DH for dinner at Chili's...waited awhile, then learned he had a last minute emergency meeting (he's a muckety muck in his company and can't just leave the office at 5:00, unfortunately), so the kids and I headed over to Chili's on our own. Got the best waiter! Tony, who was so very nice to the kids, and to me when Maya told him it was my birthday! He asked Maya if she wanted the waiters to sing to me and of course she said YES! very quickly, LOL. That's okay, I don't embarrass easily, and I was feeling like the special birthday girl there because of the royal treatment! :-) The kids all loved the singsong waiters when they sang happy 21st birthday to me, bwahahaha! (Maya whispers afterward, "Mom, they got your birthday wrong!" and I said, "No, I don't think so!' ;-)

Coolest thing this evening was getting a happy birthday shoutout during dinner from my "cyber-BFF" (LOL) Kate Gosselin from "Kate Plus 8", how kind of her to acknowledge my special milestone birthday on Twitter! :-)

Ordered steak and potatoes and steamed broccoli (which Sam ate most of), while the kids had their favorites, corn dogs and mandarin oranges and french fries (Maya got the grilled cheese sandwich, her fave)...very nice atmosphere and the kids behaved SOOOOOO well. Sarah was a little chatterbox as always (just like her mom!) and I even caught a video of her singing "Happy Burpday to you!" I'll try to post it here tomorrow! ;-) So cute and sweet, I almost cried.

After dinner we came back home and got the twins to bed (they'd fallen asleep in the van) and helped Maya pack for her school trip the next couple of days. She fell asleep almost immediately as soon as she lay down too. ;-) Started cleaning up our old couch that the charity will pick up tomorrow, when DH came in with all the aforementioned goodies! :-) And now, it's after midnight and my 50th birthday has come to a close. Yup, today was the best 50th birthday I ever had! Here's to 50 or more more! Thank you, God, for Your many blessings and gifts for me that I never deserved! I never imagined my 3 miracle children, my wonderful husband, my awesome home, my precious little cat Pebbles, all those years ago when I was a kid figuring out my age over the years. I can never thank You enough for loving me and blessing me like this! Amen! :*)

PS: Thanks to the 'non-friends' who wished me a happy birthday as well! I appreciated it! ;-)

Not 'Goodbye', but Au Revoir "Kate Plus 8"

2011-09-12T22:32:00.000-05:00

Tonight was the final episode of "Kate Plus 8", which started out 6 years ago as "Jon & Kate Plus 8". I remember watching the first one hour special about this young couple with twins AND sextuplets (6!) babies all under the age of 5--had to watch to see how on earth they handled that many children! Dealing with secondary infertility (inability to have any more children after having at least one) I was a little jealous but was smitten by those beautiful little faces immediately. :*)

A year later another special aired, and by then I was hooked, and so were a lot of other people, because Discovery Channel/TLC offered the Gosselins their own reality tv show that gave people like me a unique opportunity to share their children and their relationship with each other. Unfortunately, as with many couples in this world, the parents grew apart, and finally divorced, but mom Kate continued as primary caregiver to her miracle children and the show became "Kate Plus 8" in 2010.

I have to admit that I have not seen each and every episode; much like Kate I found my children through infertility treatment, and was busy with my now tweenie, and in 2008, surprise twins after our last IVF procedure, Sam and Sarah. :*) But the episodes I have seen I have enjoyed, watching the older children get to experience things they never would have been able to experience if they were not part of tv history...traveling around the world, meeting so many new exciting folks from other lands, learning so many things IN PERSON instead of through a textbook or a tv show. These kids have been *blessed*, no two ways about it! And there is absolutely no denying that they are thriving under their mother's care, no matter what 'haters' (those who suffer from KDS-'Kate Derangement Syndrome') say! :-)

But now, like so many things in life that come to an end, the time has come that TLC has withdrawn its support of the show and cancelled it, although I'm sure there will come syndication sometime here in the future. In the meantime, Kate is left without a job temporarily, and I fervently wish and pray that God sends her the perfect opportunities to continue providing for her 8 wonderful kids very soon! (And don't want to leave out the family dog, Shoka, either!)

So, Kate, I'll probably never have the chance to meet you in real life, but due to 21st century technology I *have* gotten to 'meet' you through Twitter (as "CJWhodunit"), we've shared little snippets of our lives, made a lot of friends online and had lots of fun doing so. I love your kids almost like they were my own (leftover teacher mode, LOL) and pray for God's blessings to always be upon them, and that they continue to grow strong, and healthy and happy with you in your home. I also say a prayer for you, Kate, that God sends not only the perfect job opportunities your way, so you can provide for your many responsibilities, but for the perfect 'helpmate' someday to show up in your life, because I believe not only do your kids deserve to be happy, but YOU do too! :*) Repeat after me: YOU DESERVE TO BE HAPPY TOO. :*)

So thank you again for sharing yourself and your family with us, your fans and supporters. We have appreciated all of the times, both good and bad, because what else is reality than things that really happen? ;-) And above all this, know that your fans and supporters aren't going anywhere here in cyberspace, we've got your back for the long run. ;-) It's not a written in stone "Goodbye" but simply an "au revoir" or 'until we meet again'! We'll hold down the fort on Twitter for you, and look forward to sharing with you and the kids on your new website http://www.kateplusmy8.com too! :-) Much love from Texas!! {{{Hugs}}}

Remembering 9/11--Ten Years Later

2011-09-07T17:17:00.007-05:00

Ten years have passed. My daughter celebrates her 11th birthday in a few weeks. She was born in the "old" pre-9/11 days of the USA, and has grown up in these post-9/11 days of more insecurity than security. In a few days, it will be 9/11 again...and so many memories are still fresh in my mind from a decade ago! I'm just a regular, ordinary, soccer mom, but these are my memories, and they are important to *me*.

My husband’s job had moved us from Texas, where all my family was, to northern California in 2001. My sister had just died in late April after a lengthy illness, and a few weeks later we were on a plane with my almost 6 month old baby girl and 2 cats. Living halfway across the country from all my family was hard, I will admit. I spent a lot of time grieving and fixing up our new house into a home, and decorating my daughter’s new nursery identical to the one we’d had in Texas…a Noah’s Ark/ocean/sea theme. At night I would sit in our old refinished rocking chair and nurse her in front of the big window there, and the first time I heard the rumble of a small airplane flying incredibly low over our house I could have sworn it was going to come flying right through that window at me and my baby! I soon learned there was a small airport nearby, and we happened to be in it’s flight path for landings. I always had a fear of one of those planes crashing into our house the entire time we lived there…in hindsight, perhaps a premonition of what was to come?

Fast forward to September 2001. My in-laws from India had arrived in June to meet their first female grandchild, and were planning to stay for 6 months as they usually did. Because my husband worked a lot, it was left up to me to schedule airplane flights for them to visit friends and relatives around the country…in early September, they planned to go to NYC to visit relatives and see the sights. One of the places they visited? The restaurant at the top of the World Trade Center. They returned on Saturday, September 8th, although originally they planned to stay an extra week. THANK GOD they missed their grandbaby too much and came home earlier!

September 10th was a bittersweet day–it was my late sister’s birthday, and our first without her. It also happened to be my in-laws’ wedding anniversary, and that night after my husband came home from work we had a little surprise anniversary party for them, with a small cake, some flowers and a nice card I’d found. We all had such a nice, relaxing time–little did we know it was the last day of “normal” in America!

After the dishes were cleaned up, my FIL told me that I could sleep in in the morning, that they’d take care of my 11-month old daughter, I deserved the extra rest. I was extremely grateful since that didn’t happen very often, and I went to bed thinking about the various chores and errands I had to do on Tuesday after my husband went to work two cities away.

They never got done.

I will never forget Tuesday morning, when I awoke suddenly and roughly by my FIL, an elderly man raised to be extremely polite and the example of perfect etiquette, pushing my shoulder and almost shouting at me to wake up, wake up…America is under attack!! I was dazed by sleep and my first thought was that something had happened to my daughter, but he told me she was downstairs safe with my MIL. I knew something was terribly, horribly wrong, because my FIL would NEVER come into my bedroom like this to wake me up otherwise, he’d always wait politely in the hallway if he needed fresh towels or whatever while I’d get them for him. What on earth could be happening that would cause him to throw off his manners like this and cause him to panic???

We rushed down the hall to our study where the computer and a small tv were. I grabbed the remote and flipped on the tv to a cable news channel…and stood their in my nightgown, with my elderly FIL extremely agitated next to me, and watched as the news source replayed something that had happened just a few minutes earlier–the second World Trade Center had crashed to the ground, killing an unknown amount of innocent people within, and below. I stood there absolutely stunned, my brain trying to wrap around what I had just seen, listening to the astonishment in the reporters’ voices, saying, this was no accident, we ARE under attack, America is now at war!!! OMG, my baby, was the first thing I thought…then my husband, many miles away at work…and what I had just seen hit me like being kicked in the gut by a horse…”What’s happening to my country?!?!” I began crying and turned to my father in law, and he just shook his head, and we cried on each others’ shoulders imagining how many people had just been killed right in front of us.

Flashes of “Independence Day” crashed through my mind, then images of taking my daughter to the airport just a few days before to pick up her grandparents right at the gate (the last time that ever happened again due to stringent security measures at American airports after that terrible day)…thinking back while planning their NYC trip, that they very well could have been in the same place as the nightmare unfolding in front of us. My FIL was terrified that his relatives who lived a short distance away had been caught in all of this, he had to wait almost a week before he finally was able to connect with them to learn they were all right. I then called a dear friend back in Texas who is like my mother, and we wept and cried over the phone again, wondering, is this the end of America? What does the future hold for us, for our children, now??

I remember spending the rest of that day in almost a stupor, watching the televised images over and over, petrified upon learning about the plane that crashed into the Pentagon, that there was a plane in Pennsylvania that might have to be shot down by our military, of President Bush being flown all over the country to protect him…the most haunting memory of that day which I will NEVER forget was when my FIL switched the tv channel to a Mexican channel (I think it was Univision? Don’t remember, just remember the news anchors speaking Spanish) because they were showing different images and new interviews instead of the same ones of the towers burning and collapsing again and again on the usual cable channels we normally watched. I wish now we hadn't switched the channel though.

I remember watching their camera following up the burning, smoking buildings surrounded by helicopters…and I remember seeing things moving down the side of the buildings, only to realize OMG! It’s people jumping to their deaths! We quickly changed the channel, trying to erase those images from our minds (never will), trying to find anything normal to focus on, and seeing that my MIL had my daughter in her high-chair eating breakfast while I tried repeatedly to contact my husband at work, listening to her giggles and the news reporters was again, incredibly surreal…FINALLY got through to him, and realized, he doesn’t know! Told him what happened and he cursed and said, it’s Muslims! which surprised me because it was the same thing his dad had said–being from India, terrorist attacks unfortunately were nothing new to them, and they had lost several relatives in Muslim terrorist attacks there in the past. I didn’t even really know what a Muslim was that day, but in the days to come all of America would find out about those 19 young men who drastically changed our entire world with their violent actions that September morning. :*(

The surreal feeling continued those days after 9/11, as the attacks on America came to be called, passed. I would sit nursing my daughter in the nursery, in front of the big window, looking out into the night, and the silence was now more frightening to me than the fear of low flying planes crashing into our house…it was so strange to walk outside, pushing a stroller and NOT seeing or hearing airplanes, big and small, flying overhead–just big, empty, quiet, eery skies, where before it had been the opposite. I remember each day that passed brought a little bit more information about the people who had died, the everyday people who transformed to heroes by simply helping others in need and desperation, and the monsters who twisted a religion into something hateful and horrible. :*( And I would find myself weeping uncontrollably at times, thinking about how close my in-laws had come to being in danger and perhaps of even getting killed. “There but for the Grace of God…”

I watched with great pride as American flags seemed to spring up in our neighborhood overnight, (we always flew one, usually the only house on the street that did) lining both sides of the street, and throughout the city. I bought three religious candles, a red, white and blue one, and burned them in honor of those lost the day there was a national day of mourning. I heard about the cell phone calls in the towers and the planes from loved ones and strangers who kindheartedly led those who were about to be killed in prayers, “The Lord is my shepherd..”, and I wept again. I seemed to weep a lot in the first few weeks after the attacks. :*(

My daughter turned 1 a month later, and took her first steps a few days after. These things are forever intertwined in my memories, moments of sorrow/anguish/grief/fear intermixed with feelings of love/amazement/joy/happiness…a strange juxtaposition, for sure! When my daughter was old enough, I wondered how I would tell her what had happened those few weeks before her first birthday, and how the world changed in a heartbeat from what was, to what is…we have traveled internationally and she has had to go through tedious security lines and remove her shoes and go through monitors and have wands waved over her from head to foot and been patted down for weapons and explosive devises, and to her, this is the way things are. She doesn’t know any different. She has studied what happened in school over the years, (and I dread the day she'll watch the historical footage of what happened as if it is happening in real time) and has a general understanding of why airport security is so strict nowadays, but she doesn’t remember living through September 11th, 2001.

But I remember.

One Year Gone, How Can That Be?

2011-08-09T14:11:00.004-05:00

Okay, it's here. The first anniversary of losing Moose. Kind of stunning, and still unreal that he's gone-there's still moments I am caught unawares and see or hear something and think, oh, that's just Moose, and then it isn't...stops me in my tracks every time.:*(

Last year I wrote about his getting sick after (actually he was sick long before we were gone, I just didn't know) our less-than-relaxing trip to India for 5 weeks in the summer of 2010. I got up to the day before we lost him, a Sunday. Then came Monday, August 8th, 2010. :*(

Moose after returning from ER hospital, favorite Little Pony at his side.

Moose and I had settled into a routine of daily IV injections of saline, I had set up a small table in my master closet (had the saline bag hanging from a hook on the door), and he had done pretty well with letting me give him the daily injections in the fold of skin behind his neck/shoulder blades. He would have more energy and perked up quite a bit after being rehydrated this way. The one thing Moose never really did after coming back from the emergency animal hospital visit two weeks earlier was eat on his own..he only ate twice that I know of. Once, I fixed him a small bowl of whole kernel corn, maybe a dozen kernels or so, that he ate, and another time, Maya had a grilled chicken Caesar salad from McD's and he was expressing an interest in the chicken, so she gave me a few pieces that I chopped up, and he ate all of that. Other than those times though, he just wouldn't eat his old regular food or the new special kidney diet food we got from Dr. Mac, neither the dry version or the canned. (Pebbles however, LOVED both, so that was good since she has the same kidney condition as Moose, only nowhere as advanced as his was, Dr. Mac said getting old cats like Moose and Pebbles to eat this food was half the battle--unfortunately Moose was a creature of habit and would just turn up his nose at it.) So after a day of his not eating, I called Dr. Mac and asked what I should do, would Moose need to be on some kind of IV food thing? He really didn't want to stress Moose out any more than necessary, so he advised syringe feeding. Fortunately, with the twins, every time we'd gotten infant motrin for teething it came with these small syringe-type things for giving the meds, which turned out to work perfectly for us.

Watered down K/D canned catfood

I had 14 of them, so that made the job easier for feeding him because I didn't have to stop and refill a single syringe repeatedly, just had my 'stash' ready to go all at once! After a few times got all the kinks worked out (how to hold him, where to aim the syringe in his mouth so he wouldn't choke, how much to squirt in his mouth at a time)...he hated it, but didn't fight me and before he died he had actually put on a few more pounds and was looking much healthier and normal.

Last pic of me & Moose together

All this time he was doing "Moosie" things, hanging around the house in his regular spots, following me into the bathroom, letting the twins pet him and pull his tail, very gently, he never isolated himself from us (except for that one day when we were supposed to get lessons from Dr. mac on how to give the saline injections)...we had settled into this new normal for us, and I started believing that we might get to borrow Moose from God for a long while longer. *sigh* I remember the weekend of August 7-8 being very busy because of plans for the twins' birthday party on Sunday afternoon...still spent quality time with Moose during the saline injections each morning, and the feeding times 3 times a day. I would find myself crying uncontrollably at times holding him or watching him walk slowly around the house, and one time, God bless her, Maya said, " Mom, he's not gone *yet*!" Out of the mouth of babes! I resolved to enjoy however long we had left. Took lots of pictures of him with the kids, and Pebbles, and his outside visits where he was just hanging out enjoying the sunny warm weather. On one of those I had Maya take a few pictures of me holding him, and I had to hold back tears knowing I wouldn't be able to do that much long. :*(

On Monday morning, we started the day out as usual, saline injection perked him up, but when he went outside I noticed some weakness in his back legs again, like I'd originally noticed when this nightmare began for me. Called Dr. Mac and he told me, "Can you make him eat a banana? If not, come get some potassium cream for him, it sounds like he's running low." when I asked if I should bring Moose in for some tests, he kindly told me in no uncertain terms it wouldn't make any difference and only stress Moose out. "Home is where he needs to be now." So a little while later when I took Maya to a science summer camp, I swung by Dr. mac's on the way and picked up the potassium supplement, and gave it to him as soon as we got home.

Moose seemed to perk up a little while after that and was doing his usual inspecting of the house (much more slowly than usual, but his spirit was strong). He had started having trouble getting into the cat box, and I noticed he'd had a little diarrhea and cat litter was sticking to him, and he needed a bath...but I needed to watch the twins too...at that moment, our two neighbor girls, Maya's friends showed up (thank God for small blessings that turn into big ones! :*) asking, hey, do you need any help with the twins? I was so relieved because I really needed to clean up Moose, so for the next hour or so they played with Sam and Sarah while I tended Moose. I will be grateful to them for the rest of my life because of their kindness that came at precisely the moment I needed it. :*)

Sorry, had to stop there because I just burst into tears.

Okay. Anyway, I took Moose back into my master bathroom, where it was nice and quiet. When he was younger we used to give him baths and showers to keep any flea problems/dander/allergy problems at bay. He didn't care to be all wet and shampooed but was used to it, and especially loved our hair dryer and brushing afterwards, one of his very favorite things. :-) Bathed him gently (much to his embarrassment) and cleaned off the poo and the cat litter bits, very gently, didn't want him stressing out. Dried him off real good with a towel, and then started brushing and drying his hair with the hair dryer for several minutes...he enjoyed that even when he wasn't bathed, LOL, just one of his kitty favorites! I was singing silly songs to him that I'd done his whole life, for the 14 years we'd been together, which he also loved, silly cat...he was all stretched out on the bath rug next to the tub, just as relaxed as could be, wish I'd taken pics of that moment, he was so happy. I leaned over (I was on my knees this whole time cleaning him and dryimg him) to snuggle him, put my ear against his shoulders/back...and heard...purring!!! His old familiar, deep, rumbly, motorlike purrng...which I hadn't heard or felt since we'd left for India in June (crap, I'm crying again and can't see the keyboard on this ipad)--oh, I am so happy because I had missed that reassuring sound so much since we got back, and for a moment, everything in the universe was right. :*)

Went to pick up Maya a while later, and she told me about her science camp being so much fun. Got home, got snacks for the kids, and at one point couldn't find Maya. Went in my room, and found her, laying on the floor next to Moose, crying her heart out. He was sitting up, just fine, looking at me like, "What the hey?" I comforted her, and she said she didn't know why she was so upset, she just felt like she needed to cry...got her calmed down and everything seemed fine. We spent the afternoon playing with the little kids, fed Moose his dinner, fed the kids, gave them baths, watched some Baby Einstein, and put them to bed...since it wasn't a school night and Maya's camp on Tuesday didn't start until 9 am, she was allowed to stay up later in the summer. DH had come home and was doing some work on his computer in our bedroom, I think I folded some laundry while Maya chatted with her dad...and Moose was watching all of this from a towel I'd put down in front of our dresser (had towels in all of Moose's favorite places because of the incontinence problems). Sitting there like normal, head turning to watch people walk by, looking as normal as could be, no problems whatsoever. But as I walked by, talking to Maya about the next day's schedule, I glanced over at Moose, checking on him as I often did, and suddenly I *knew*. Something about his eyes was different and I just *knew*.

Moose was dying, it had already begun. I've been around family and pets who have died in the past, and there's a certain look they get in their eyes, I don't know how to describe it...I just *knew*. I dropped to my knees next to him and felt his sides, he wasn't having any breathing problems, wasn't distressed, he seemed okay...DH was puzzled, "What?" Maya and I just looked at each other and she instinctively knew too...I told DH, "It's time. Moose's time is up..." DH scoffed and turned back to his computer. "He's fine, you two just leave him alone and let him rest." I told him no, he's not fine, I can tell...DH insisted otherwise and said, "I've got to finish this work tonight! Maya, go to bed, and you, go settle down in the other room and watch tv or something." Maya started crying and I told him, "She wants to be a part of this, let her, she's old enough to understand," he didn't think anything was going on with Moose but said okay, you guys just go in the other room so I can finish this up.." It was about 10:30pm by then so I moved Moose and his towel into our kitchen and we set up a place near our island where we both could sit. We sat down crosslegged and we were both crying gently as I held Moose like a baby like he always loved to be held. We took turns holding him, he never seemed to be in distress, but again, I could see in his eyes that things were happening, that his organs were shutting down (gently, thank you, God!) and he didn't seem to be in any pain whatsoever. Maya was asking a lot of questions about death, and I believe if a child has the wherewithal to ask a question, they deserve a serious answer. We spoke about God and heaven and no pain or suffering there, and how this body is just a shell without the spirit in it. She wondered if cats have spirits/souls and we discussed that too...it was an incredible mother/daughter bonding moment for both of us.

Through it all, Moose seemed to start fading away, still conscious of both of us and responding to our voices...I thank God for the ease of this time, Moose simply became weaker and weaker, more rag dollish, as we held him. At one point, one of his hind legs began jerking, and I reach over and massaged it and it stopped...Maya was very concerned and I explained to her that it was normal...only happened that once...we just took turns holding him and speaking softly to him, telling him how much we loved him and were going to miss him, but that he'd be in heaven where he could eat all the corn and chicken he wanted..:*)

About 11:15 pm, we'd been sitting with him about 45 minutes or so, and it was Maya's turn to hold him. She cradled him like a baby, tears running down her face and dripping onto his tummy...when suddenly he gasped, not loudly, just a surprised kind of gasp, and then no more. She was still holding him and really didn't notice anything, but again, I *knew*. About that time she said, I have to go to the bathroom but I don't want to leave! I told her I would hold him until she got back and let her know immediately if anything happened. She handed him over gently to me, and I could tell instantly the moment I took him that he was gone. :*( She left and I laid him down gently on the towel and leaned over, trying to find a heartbeat or hear his breath, but he was really gone. I thanked God that He had taken my baby Moose so peacefully, not just for his sake or my sake, but for Maya's sake...I just closed my eyes and started crying even harder, saying goodbye, my friend, goodbye, my friend over and over in my mind....

A minute later Maya came back from the bathroom, saw me huddled over Moose on the floor and she knew immediately he was gone. She dropped to her knees and started sobbing, saying I shouldn't have gone to the bathroom! :*( I reassured her and told her, you remember right before you left, how Moose gave that little gasp? And she said, yes, was that when he died? I said yes, I think so...she got this amazed look on her face, "You mean I got to hold him as he died?" And the smile on her tear-filled face was just the most...I can't even describe it. She asked if she could hold him again even though he was gone, so I handed him to her and she oh so very gently cuddled him next to her and kissed his forehead (his eyes had closed naturally when he went), and just petted him over and over gently, saying I love you, Moose, you were like my big brother for as long as I can remember! She gave him back to me and let me say my goodbyes to him as well, and asked what do we do with him now?

About this time, DH came into the kitchen for a break, and saw us sitting on the floor crying..."What's going on?" I told him Moose was gone, and DH was truly, truly shocked, because we'd only gone into the kitchen a short while before. "But he was doing all right, what happened?" He was really stunned, then asked, "What are you going to do with him now? Are we going to bury him in the backyard or what?" I told him we didn't want to do that because if we moved we'd have to leave him behind, and we couldn't imagine doing that...DH told us he didn't want the body staying in our house until morning, when we'd take Moose to Dr. Mac's for cremation...so Maya and I figured out what to do when DH went back to work in the other room.

Years before when we'd moved back to Texas from California, we had driven in our SUV with both cats and a 2 y/o...all 3 of them did GREAT, surprising enough. Moose would lean up and look out the window to see the world passing by...Pebbles discovered sleeping sprawled out across the dashboard was her favorite place, LOL, once she figured out how to maneuver the glass part without bumping her head...in the back of the SUV I'd put a new small kitty litter box, and there were 3 disposable replacements that I'd gotten...we only used one on our 3 day trip cross country, so I still had 2 left when Moose got sick, I'd put one out for him when he was having trouble with the big litterbox we use (a huge tub with 2 boxes of cat litter in it) but he hadn't used it, creature of habit, would only use the big one). I emptied out the torn up newspaper I'd put in it, so we had the new blue litterbox available to use as a 'coffin' for Moose.

I got one of the old towels we used to use to dry him off after baths, and Maya made a soft little bed in it for him. I went to put him in it and she started crying again, and wanted to hold him one last time, so I handed him gently to her. She told him again how much she loved him so much and how much she would miss him. My heart was just breaking for her grief! And my own! :*( but I felt it was healthy for her to be able to say goodbye this way...she gently put him down on the towel, and his body curled up naturally the way he always used to nap, and it looked so much like that was all he was doing, just taking another of his many kitty naps a day. Maya remembered Moose's favorite toys and wondered if we should put them in with him...I told her if she wanted to, yes, we could, so she went around the house and gathered up several of them...he had stolen one of her My Little Ponies years ago, so we put that in, some "Moose toys", zip ties that had been cut off packages that he loved to bat around around, a favorite...then she said, I want to write Moose a goodbye note. I gathered some paper and markers and we both wrote down our feelings for Moose. I wrote down how Moose had literally saved my life when I had been feeling suicidal years before after my miscarriages while dealing with infertility, thinking, what will happen to Moose and Pebbles if I am gone? DH isn't a cat person, he'd find new homes for them...all those years of negative pregnancy tests when he would be with me when I cried...DH doesn't do emotional females very well, but Moose was always there when I was upset, he'd jump up in my lap and purr and it would calm me down...all the times it looked like I would never get to have children, Moose was there to help me deal with the emotional side of infertility...I wrote how grateful I was that he had been my 'first' baby and how much he meant to all of us, and how I was going to miss him.

We put the notes in on top of him very gently. Then I took a big black trash bag and placed the blue litter box with Moose, his toys, and our notes inside gently, wrapping the edge over it, then another black trash bag on top of that very gently. I took our portable clothes drying rack out to our patio, and set it up. I had put the bathroom rug outside earlier after washing it when Moose had an accident on it, it was dry, so I laid it across the top of the rack. Then Maya and I carried Moose outside and placed it gently on our homemade bier. Maya smiled and said, this was Moose's favorite place to play in catnip, and roll around and bit Pebbles and then watch the birds on the fence in the backyard, this is the perfect place for him to rest. I smiled at her observations, because she was right! It was his favorite place in our backyard to hang out because the small patch of concrete was usually cool and comfortable for him. :-)

Awhile later, as I was cleaning up the kitchen floor, I saw DH head out the back door, quietly, and up to the drying rack. He put a hand on top of the box and bowed his head, I went back to take care of Maya and left him alone to say his goodbyes to Moose.

After that, we both took a shower to clean up, and cried some more, and comforted each other some more, then I let her sleep in with us because she didn't want to be alone. We snuggled and finally fell asleep.

Next morning, I called Dr. Mac's first thing and told the receptionist that we'd lost Moose the night before. She told me how sorry she was, that she thought he'd been doing better, and I told her what had happened. She was very surprised because she said a lot of times that pets are put down to keep them from suffering but it sounded like Moose hadn't suffered at all...she told us to bring him in and they would make arrangements for the cremation. I told Maya I would drop off Moose after taking her to her science camp, and she was adamant that *she* had to be the one to do that...so I packed the twins into the van (they were puzzled that Maya and I would start crying for no reason) and Maya went out back and lifted the box (it was a bit heavy but she managed) with Moose in it and got in the front seat of the van with him in her lap. I remember driving to the vet's, looking over at Maya holding the garbage bag covered box in her lap, absently petting the top of the bag while she looked out the window, thinking, Oh, my God, this is so surreal!! I can't believe my furbaby is in there, that he's gone! and having to try not to cry so I could see the road as I was driving. When we got there, I told Maya I would take him in, and she wouldn't have any of it...*she* had to be the one to take Moose inside to Dr. Mac one last time. Dr. Mac met us at the door, tears in his eyes too, saying how sorry he was as Maya handed Moose over to him. "We'll take good care of him," he promised Maya (she's known him her whole life, in fact wanted to marry him when she was little, he took it all in stride and said he'd have to ask his wife if it was okay ;-) very seriously...she patted the top of the box gently one last time and said "Goodbye, Moose, we'll see you in heaven someday!" and went out to the van...I did the same and of course, started crying again, Dr. Mac and the receptionist both told me it was okay, we'll take good care of him, don't worry. So I went out to the van and took Maya to her science camp a few hours late...she was still upset but handling things pretty well. Me? Not so much. :*(

I was surprised the next day when the receptionist called and said Moose's remains were back, I had thought it would take a few days. Went back to the vet's and picked him up...a small gold box that was all that was left of Moose and his toys...originally, Maya and I had planned to take his ashes back to the east Texas farm where I'd gotten him on a small dairy farm (he and Pebbles were feral cats) in 1996, but once we got his remains, Maya said, "Mom, can we wait to do that? It's kind of a comfort knowing he's here, even if it is just ashes." So Moose is now in a permanent place on our fireplace mantle, nestled next to a stuffed Moose toy that he used to play with, with little dried up roses on top of the gold box and Maya's little pink marble heart in front. I was given a small angel medallion years ago as a blessing, I put a glue dot on the back and attached it to the front of the box, one of these days I'll order a permanent memorial box for him, but I haven't had the courage to do that yet, maybe because I feel like once I do, that's the final step in saying goodbye to Moose, and I'm just not ready to do that yet...*sigh*

Not a day goes past that I don't miss Moose. I don't burst into tears very much anymore when I miss him--writing all this down has me crying more than I have in the past several months remembering him. God has blessed me so much in that Pebbles, who for YEARS would have nothing to do with us, suddenly bloomed when Moose left...she started acting more like a cat, wanting to jump in my lap, wanting head bumps and snuggles and sleeping behind my knees at night the way Moose used to do..."talking" to us, sometimes in a very demanding way, LOL, for treats and brushing and snuggling...a few days ago I caught her playing with one of Maya's (now Sarah's) old My Little Pony toys, rolling on the floor biting the hair and tail, the same way Moose used to do, and I marveled at how good God is to me. :*) I hope He will let us have Pebbles for a long time to come but someday her time will come too...I think Maya and I will be okay then as well.

RIP Moose August ?, 1996-August 9, 2010

One Year Later, Tuesday sigh

2011-08-07T21:34:00.003-05:00

Well, I never did finish the story of my beloved cat and best friend Moose's last few hours with us last year. Struggling to think of what to write to commemorate the first anniversary of losing him...with dread. :*( Need to finish this story though, to honor his last moments, and to remember the good times as well as those awful last ones. Check in on Tuesday, hopefully, I'll be able to get his story written by then. :*(

"Little House on The Prairie" & Me

2011-08-04T09:02:00.004-05:00

Ugh. It's going to be another day in Texas dealing with triple digit temperatures! High is expected to be 109 degrees Farenheit, add in the heat index and it will feel more like somewhere in the 115 degree range, hope this isn't going to be the 'new normal' in the weather, darn you Al Gore!!!...I've been in Texas since 1972, lived through the huge heat wave in 1980 commuting an hour each way every day to work at my first teaching job that summer--in my brand new Ford Pinto ;-) with NO air conditioning and an 8 track player belting out "Eagles" tunes...but I have NEVER seen temps like this. :-(

My first car was a 1980 Ford Pinto Pony, like this one!

Got me to thinking about one of my favorite tv shows, "Little House on the Prairie"...loved that show sooooo much! First time I watched it when I was a kid I was tickled to see that one of the main characters had the same name as me, LOL. (Admit it, even now as adults that still makes you smile when someone you admire has the same name as you!) The mom on the show was always such a 'perfect' mom...always looked good no matter what the situation, always spoke softly when correcting her kids (working on this one myself), always seemed to be full of wisdom and kindness...my kind of mom! :-)

It's strange how aging changes your point of view of things that DON'T change--now that I'm an adult and have kids of my own, and so many more responsibilities than I did way back then, I remember LHOTP differently...yes, the main memory I have of the show is how devastated I was when Mary went blind (I have progressive vision loss so this is one of my biggest fears, not as bad now as it was when I was a kid, thank goodness)--some of the best acting EVER in any tv show, click on my title above to see for yourself on YouTube...a mom back then had so many more things to worry about for her kids and her husband and her home...would many of us pampered by modern life and technology be able to muster up enough 'pioneer fortitude' to survive like they did without any modern conveniences? Makes me wonder...

Anyhoo, I was thinking in these high temps the past month or so, how inconvenienced I have been by not being able to take my 3 year old twins outside to the park, or my tweenie to our community swimming pool...how just going to the store is such a hassle because of the heat and how long it takes our van to cool off, and if we have several errands, ugh. I have actually burned my hand on my steering wheel, and adjusting my rear view mirror! And my poor kids...let's just say this heat wears them out too! So we've had to stay at home A LOT this summer...or else hang out at places like McDonald's which has a gigantic play area climber (not much else) two stories high that Googah loves (Sam not so much) or Chuck E. Cheese, which is much more expensive...McD's has free wifi so that's a plus for me as well as the play area for the kids...only caveat is if sick kids come in, but that's a chance a mom has to take anywhere she takes her kids.

So, I am inconvenienced--BUT I remember those days when I didn't have A/C in my vehicle OR in my home on hot broiling summer days...every years people die for the stupidest reasons in this Texas heat--parents "forgetting" they have their babies in their vehicles and leaving them in the parking lot to boil to death literally in the hot sun...old people who refuse to turn on their A/C's (if they have them in the first place, many just have fans, and there are some who don't even have that!!) because they can't pay the high electric bills that come hand in hand with the summer temps...so sad! :*( Then I think back on the days when "Little House on the Prairie" was set...NO A/C anywhere!! It just didn't exist! And out on the prairie where there weren't many trees for shade?? Why on earth would anyone decide to build a house there (IIRC, mostly sod houses, which helped cool things off a little bit inside)...and I count my blessings...I have a safe, cool home to stay in in this weather...lots of homeless people, stray animals, God's wild creatures, poor folks...lots of them would be delighted to have our blessings!

I have a van with A/C--yeah, I still get burned BUT at least I'm not having to drive with my windows open, no air moving and feeling like I'm sitting on or in an oven...lots of people this very moment are traveling like that (belting out Eagles songs like I used to do? ;-) and I am so very fortunate that I don't have to live like that anymore, thank God from Whom All Blessings Flow! :*) And while my vision is getting worse year after year (and my hearing too, thanks to my thyroid/autoimmune conditions) I count it a blessing that after all this time, I *can* still see with my expensive glasses (that I used to not be able to afford so one pair would have to last me several years) even though this weather is triggering the worst 'dry eye' I've ever had in my life, I am still grateful for God blessing me and my kids. I am praying for all those people who don't have the same blessings, that parents/caretakes won't 'forget' their kids in vehicles parked in hot places for hours; for the homeless folks living out on the streets reflecting those hot temps off the sidewalks; for the poor seniors who are trying to survive with the little bit of money and dignity they have...dear God, I hope this weather and drought end soon...watch over all of us, wherever we may be and whatever situation we may be in!

"Not Atlanta" Aimee, eh?

2011-07-25T12:40:00.000-05:00

How's Augusta this time of year? Just sayin'... ;-)

Y'all have a nice day!

2011-07-25T01:05:00.000-05:00

pondsnow.jpg

Looky looky what have we here?

2011-07-25T00:56:00.001-05:00

aimee said... Poor widdle baby. I think you have had your hands in a few mass reporting of several people. It is about time you get a taste of it. 1:51 AM, July 17, 2011: ---------------------------------------------------------------
Hmmmmm, wonder which 'aimee' this could be...so it admits there have been mass reportings of folks on Facebook? Interesting news. < jots down info for future use >

2011-07-01T22:45:00.000-05:00

Finding lots of pics while cleaning up my hard drive, will post in no particular order when I find ones I like. :-) This one is from this past spring, when we attended "Day Out With Thomas"--third or fourth time for Maya, first time for the twins and they LOVED the big Thomas engine AND the short ride we took in the passenger car (of course it was "Annie" and "Claribel"!) :-)

Slow Day in Haterville-again, LOL.

2011-07-01T11:04:00.000-05:00

Aw, widdle haterz got nuffin' better to do than try to shut down my Facebook account by reporting me en masse for non-existent posts that are allegedly 'offensive', LOL. Thank God for inside help from FB in dealing with this, and what a wonderful thing IP addresses are! It's amazing that even when someone uses proxies to cover their tracks (ie 'hidemya$$.com) THEY CAN STILL BE TRACED BACK TO THEIR SOURCE USING...well, let's just say having a hubby in the telecommunications field is an added bonus. ;-)

In other news, our new flooring is almost completely installed YAY! and it looks beautiful! :-) Had a rough spell when the a/c fan went out for a day, but got that fixed pretty quickly and the temps in the house are cool again, THANK GOD. Neighbors have been great watching the twins so I and the installers can work in peace without tripping over them every which way, LOL, and as soon as they finish my hobby room I can get my art supplies, scrapbook stuff etc. all put away again...can't wait to start scrapping again! Got several albums I would like to finish before the end of this year! :-) Let me see if I can find some pics of the house before flooring (kitchen, bathroom, and garage looks like an episode of Hoarders, LOL)...BRB! :-)

HTML Tweaking

2011-06-23T22:28:00.000-05:00

Played around a little bit with my template here for this blog, made some mistakes but liked the way they turned out, so kept'em! :-) Added two recent pictures of the kids from April, taken with a few Texas bluebonnets. Didn't realize they were too large but liked the scrapbooky way they turned out over there on the right side of the page. ----->

Played around changing colors of a few bits of text too, seem to have figured that out, may research and try some other colors in the future. Gotta go pack some knick knacks right now, we're getting new flooring on Monday and the installers need to be able to move the big pieces of furniture without breaking stuff! ;-)

401!!

2011-06-21T11:26:00.001-05:00

LOL. Speaking of background--since certain folks at a certain 'nother blog here on blogspot became obsessed with this, my mommy blog/journal/sounding board, I've started getting numerous hits because of her advertising for me on *her* blog (which I will not mention in the interests of good taste! ;-)...LOL, I've never advertised for myself in all the years that I've been at SAHM's Place, only posted it on Twitter's profile page a short while ago (less than a year? Would have to check) just because it asked me for my website. I never imagined anyone would be interested in a regular ol' soccer mom's view about her miracle kids, her family life, American politics (which affect her kids' futures), and miscellaneous and sundry other things that pop up on a day to day basis. ;-) But since this person started obsessing with me on her blog, I've had more hits (even semi-figured out how to put a tracking/counter here, sort of, to see how many folks are dropping by to check out my humble thoughts!) in the past month/six weeks or so than I've had since I began in what, 2004? 2005? Have to look that up, but it's been awhile. ;-) I guess I should thank her and her...don't know what to call them-fans? Supporters? Evil minions? LOL! So anyhoo, there it is. I'm hoping whoever wanders over here to this quiet corner of the universe discovers that I am what I am ;-) and not really anything else, ya know? Just a humble soccer mom who cares about her God, her family, her home and her role in the battle of good vs. evil in this world. :*) And if you don't believe in evil? Yeah, just read the headlines. It *does* exist--but not here. :-)

Here's some tea and cookies for my new readers/lurkers, y'all have a great day, and don't let the terrorists win! ;-)

God is working in the background...

2011-06-21T11:14:00.000-05:00

...it always amazes me and fills me with wonder when major events happen in my life, and later on, when things have settled down, in hindsight to review what happened and see that God was working in the background the whole time. :-) Putting things were they needed to be at exactly the right place and the right time...bringing certain people in and out of my life at the right time...preparing me for painful times and joyous times in ways I could never have imagined or connected while something lifechanging was occurring...."Our God is an Awesome God" is a Christian contemporary song that I have always loved singing, but until recently, just HOW awesome God is really hadn't sunk in. :*) I hope you are able to see how God has been and STILL is working in the background of *your* life in hindsight. It's time to notice! :*)

Life is GOOD! Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!

2011-06-19T18:22:00.003-05:00

This was a great week, the twins and I spent a lot of time visiting various McDonald's Playlands all over the place after dropping Maya off at her bowling camp every day. It's just way too hot here for regular summer activities, like swimming, or hanging out at
the parks around us, sadly...and it's STILL not officially summer yet! Twins have really enjoyed investigating new playlands and meeting new kids to play with...Sarah knows no fear and will climb the two story structures in a heartbeart, but Sam prefers playing on the ground level stuff and rolling cars and trains on the floor, windowsills, etc. :-)

On Wednesday when we went to pick up the tweenie, we stayed for a couple of hours and the twins got to bowl for the first time, actually what they call 'bumper bowling', where these metal rails pop up when it's the kid's turn to bowl. They also had these metal walker looking ramp things to put the bowling ball on so it could slide down onto the lane! G&G LOVED it! But I think Sam's favorite was that little hand fan at the end of the ball return, LOL. Wish dad could have gotten off work to join us though! On Friday asked Maya how she loved the camp (bowling for 2 hours a day, video games, lazer tag, art activities) and she said THREE THUMBS UP! :-) Good thing, I've got her signed up for 2 more weeks this summer, LOL! :-)

It's been a lazy, relaxing weekend, played hooky from church today to fix dad a big Indian breakfast for Father's Day, and Maya made some "delickshush" as the twins say, banana bread. :-) Gotta do a little bit of laundry, and start sending stuff upstairs prior to getting our new flooring installed downstairs next week, I CAN'T WAIT!!! :-) Since DH supports his parents a lot of things we'd do for ourselves gets postponed, but this yucky carpet isn't worth getting cleaned any longer so laminate flooring, here we come!

Gotta go for now, Sam's fallen asleep, and Sarah wants to "nuggle" with me...will try to post some pictures in a bit. Ciao! :-)

Busy, busy day! And HOT!! Not even summer yet?! OY!

2011-06-13T23:47:00.000-05:00

Maya started her bowling camp this morning, don't think she was overly enthused when we got there, although she loves the Main Event activities...had some time to kill so instead of driving all the way back home, I took the twins to breakfast at a local pancake house restaurant. We had a great breakfast, and Sam and Sarah were very good and well behaved, even ate a boatload of food! Must be having another growth spurt! :-)

Picked up Maya and she told us she'd had a lot of fun, two thumbs up! :-) And was looking forward to the rest of the week...the manager had told me off to the side that there's several really cool surprises for the kids (lazer tag, etc.) and I think Maya will be delighted over each of them. :-) Had to have a quick thyroid ultrasound (regular checkup) which was only about 45 minutes or so long...then Sarah remembered that I had promised we'd go to McDonald's playland today (I'd forgotten! Little smart cookie!) and off we went! Spent several hours there, LOL, kids love the 2 story climber so much, and the foosball machine, even though they can't reach that. They also love meeting all the other kids that are there, and are so excited to play and chase each other...I think it's a good foreshadowing of preschool this fall, and that they'll both adapt pretty well when that happens! :-)

Pretty late when we got in, Maya played some video games on my computer, Sam played with his trains while Sarah had a quick catnap...then we all sat down and watched the new episode of Kate Plus 8 about the kids' 7th birthday. Should have recorded Sarah, every time the kids showed up on screen, on the interview loveseat, or on the show, she would start belly laughing like crazy! :-) She seemed to like the silly hats best of all because she wanted me to rewind the show so she could see it all again. ;-) New fact learned tonight? Our favorite peanut butter and marshmallow creme sandwiches are called 'fluffernutters'! :-)

Maya's Spring school picture

2011-06-12T19:56:00.000-05:00

Projects & To Do lists

2011-06-09T09:45:00.000-05:00

I've got several things I want to accomplish this summer, already finished several, but as usual, there's always something else that needs to be done waiting in the wings, LOL. Some of the biggies: getting ALL my digital pics and graphics organized and uploaded to flickr; sort through all the kids' clothes, donate what is outgrown to my niece for her new baby, and separate wearable items by sizes and get them in labeled tubs so when the twins are ready to wear them, all we have to do is pull the tub out of he closet or attic...still waiting to hear about the laminated flooring for the house, have an appt for that next week...reorganize the garage and donate things we don't need anymore (like lawnmower, weedeater, etc since we've had a lawn service do that for the past couple years)...the always put off until last hobby room organizing, LOL...getting a large file cabinet and going through all of our records and shredding those we don't need and organizing what we do need to keep (tax records, medical records, etc.)...sorting through the bazillion toys we've got here in the house and donating those that are outgrown or unloved (tweenie suggested sending some to Joplin for the kids who lost everything, isn't she a thoughtful sweetie? :*)--so much to do and not enough hours in the day,LOL. As usual, playing with the kids takes precedence, because after all, that's more important than all the chores that'll keep til another day. :*)

Lurkers, what do you think? :-)

2011-06-08T00:13:00.000-05:00

There's a hate blog out there (I call it the RAWten blog, just google RWA and you'll find it easily enough) advertising that this site, my poor little innocent mommy blog, is a 'hate site' attacking other folks with racist/sexist/gaybashing/yadayadayada blog entries...first may I just say BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Just because someone like me, a Christian, conservative, Tea Party supporter, soccer mom writes about what her life is about in these little journal entries (I don't advertise for followers, unlike certain RAWten hate blogs who suck up to everyone and everything to get more folks on their site)does NOT mean the author (that would be me, or anyone else with similar viewpoints!) is a racist/sexist/gaybashing/yadayadayada person. :-) This is more like my journal/diary/venting board, LOL. I'm sure quite boring to many folks who've wandered here AT THE URGING OR RECOMMENDATION OF SOMEONE ELSE ;-) but what can I say, it's my life and that's the way the ball rolls. Oops! Is that a racist/sexist/gaybashing/yadayadayada comment? If I've offended anyone (other than the three HATERZ I just mentioned, let's see how fast this entry gets around, LOL) well, what can I say? Do yer research, dudes and dudettes! ;=)

SHOUT OUT!! :-)

2011-04-08T15:48:00.000-05:00

Just want to say hi to the lurkers from a certain RAWten blog around town for dropping by!! Hope you like my mommy blog!! Oh, and HI MELANIE!!! So glad you dropped in and raised my visitor count!! LOL. ;-)

Happy New Year 2011!!!

2010-12-31T21:42:00.000-06:00

Well, another year goes by, and with it a lot of memories, some good, some bad--watching my kids grow strong and healthy is one of the greatest blessings of my life. :*) I also lost one of the greatest blessings of my life this summer, my furbaby Moose, who was 14...part of me still blames myself for his passing, if we hadn't gone to India I would have been here to notice symptoms, I could have had him at the vet's sooner, so many regrets I have for my poor baby :*( but I take comfort in knowing that he plays painfree in God's Kingdom, that he sits in Jesus' lap now, and gets the neckrubs and head scritches that he loved so much :*) and someday we WILL be reunited. And so life goes on...

I stay pretty busy IRL, the twins are 2.5, full of laughter and curiosity and LOVE :*) and we have so much fun...of course I don't get much done around the house because of DH's job, I can't leave the twins alone and do chores like I used to, they simply get into too much trouble if I do--only time I can do much is when they are eating in their high chairs, and the little Houdinis are figuring out how to escape from those as well! Maya is a blessing and a curse at the same time, LOL, she's 10 now going on 20 and of course, knows oh, so much more than her poor decrepit mom. ;-)
Can't get her to organize and clean her room (been trying to finish that project since before we went to India in June!!) on her own, but she is a lifesaver helping me with the twins when I need help or just a few minutes' break, she's so good with them and they love their big sister "YaYa" so much. :-) Oh, and their language skills are picking up so much now--a little while ago Sam told me, "Oh, hi, Mom!" (He starts his sentences with "Oh, hi, (whoever)" as if he just realized we were there with him;-) and when I said hi back, he said, "I have an idea!" :-) It was so cute. Sarah is irrepressible in her cuteness as well--she doesn't speak English but boy, does she understand it with a razor sharp mind--she can use the new Ipad I just got for Christmas last week like a professional! I mean moving from menu to menu, icon to icon, playing the games I installed...she's really good with puzzles and conquers them really fast, the same way "YaYa" conquers new video games on her Nintendo DSi!! Amazing! :-)

DH is moving up the ladder at his job, got a great promotion, and was able to FINALLY trade in his old Volvo (I mean OLD, it was 12!) for a new Honda Accord. He's really proud of the deal he got, and it's very nice and will fit all of us once the twins outgrow their big old bulky car seats.

Well, one of my resolutions is to try to post here more often--I know that really no one reads my blog, but it is cathartic for me and that's what counts. I'm also going to finish organizing my new hobby room, get all the storage boxes out of my bedroom and sorted out and organized, and all the baby clothes in some sort of order. We've got a small dresser in my bedroom for the twins' clothes and we really need to be using their bedroom upstairs for diaper changing and clothes instead...but so many times it's so much easier to just put them to bed downstairs, dress them after their baths down here, or change their diapers in the pack 'n play in our bedroom--it will be potty training time soon enough!

Got a lot to talk about as usual, but want to go watch Bill Hemmer acting goofy on the FOX New Year's Eve special...I've already done my 'exercise' (not heavy duty yet, I'm working my way up to that) on our new Wii that "Santa" brought last week--it really is a lot of fun, and I think once I get into the daily habit I'll be able to stay motivated and work out, and finally lose this extra weight I've picked up over the years! Wii says I need to lose 60 lbs! Don't know if I can do that much, but maybe at least half, I'd be happy with that. Gonna call Granny Linda and Papa Mike now and tell them Happy New Year and fix some black eyed peas for good luck...hope anyone that reads this will find God's face turned toward them this new year, and that He will bless you and yours most abundantly in all you do! Take care, peeps! :*)

Still here, needing to catch up as usual!

2010-10-27T19:43:00.000-05:00

Been just crazy as usual here since the last time I posted. Still missing my Moosie like crazy :*( but the pain is becoming a little more bearable with each passing day...when I feel a bit stronger I'll finish the story of his last days...Maya and I have both had birthdays in the past few weeks, she's ten now, going on 15! LOL. That reminds me, I need to update my blogger profile--

Sarah and Sam are growing like weeds, strong and healthy, thank You, God! :*)
Sam is speaking rudimentary sentences now, says "thank you" and calls Maya by her proper name, instead of "YaYa", he's very much into building blocks and cars and trains. Typical boy stuff! :-) Sarah has become a prolific artist, like her big sister--I bought Maya a 70 page sketchbook last week for her birthday, she only got to use 1 page before Sarah appropriated it. Now, a week or so later, Sarah has colored/drawn on EVERY SINGLE PAGE, FRONT AND BACK, and looks for more! Wow. :-) She's learning her colors as well, and was delighted when I bought her one of those large boxes of crayons!

We spent one Saturday at the State Fair, and had a great (but tiring) time...it was too cute watching Sarah talking and waving to Big Tex, LOL. Maya and I had gone to the Fair a few years ago, and this time the prices were double what they were then! :-O
Outrageous.

Finished working in the backyard for now, got Sam and Sarah's sandboxes set up to their delight. Now if we can just get rid of the mosquitoes that eat them up when they're out there! These bugs are immune to all the sprays I've gotten! :-(

Got a lot of pictures to share, when I get a chance HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I just crack myself up! I'll post them. Heard from a friend that blogger is charging for pics now? Anyone know if that's true??

Off to google. Hope all is well with all of you. God bless you, sleep tight, and don't let the terrorists win!

"YOU'RE NOT THERE"

2010-08-15T19:10:00.001-05:00

In memory of our best furfriend Moose
8-?-96 to 8-9-10

"You're Not There"
No peeking around the corner,
Or napping in front of the door,
I keep looking at all of the places
But you aren't there any more.

I look in the empty bathtub,
Where you used to love to play-
I look out into the backyard
Where you loved to explore each day.

I look up on the staircase and see
Your favorite step is bare,
I look over on the windowsill
But you aren't there.

I look in the empty bathroom sink,
I look under the kitchen table.
You're not curled up at the foot of the bed,
I try not to look, but I'm not able-

I'm not looking for you on purpose,
Time and again, I'm caught unaware
My breath catches in my aching heart
Every time I can see, you're not there...

I know our grief will someday settle
And the pain we feel won't be so great
But so many shattered feelings are crushing
(I know others in grief can relate)-

Still, I hold onto Hope that someday
In God's Kingdom we shall meet again
Though I can't help myself from missing you
And grieving for you until then-

So for now my heart will remember
All the love, smiles and joy memories will send-
Oh, how much you loved us, and were so, so loved!
My precious Moose, my beloved friend.

(Carolyne in TX
Moose and Maya's "Mama"
8-13-10)

"My Family" FB app

2010-08-14T03:02:00.000-05:00

Made this for my profile page, come to find out, FB is phasing stuff like this out! :-(

So I'll share it here instead! If you'll notice, Moose is an angel here!

3 Months Later

2010-08-11T19:27:00.001-05:00

All the glory to God that we are safe and sound!
So much has happened in 3 months I don't even know where to start! :*(
We went to India for 5 weeks--the absolute worst vacation/trip EVER :*( I worried about Moose and Pebbles the whole time since we didn't have internet access to keep up with the petsitters, etc. The whole trip was one giant example of Murphy's Law in action! Seriously, I need therapy for some of the stuff that happened, and because of all the physical and emotional stress I was under, I lost 25!!! pounds!! Crazy, crazy time!

Came home on Tuesday, July 20th, to find Moose and Pebbles and the house fine--I thought. In hindsight I wish I'd know then what I know now! :*(

DH went back to work on Wednesday (!) leaving me to get the house up and running again, we all had jet lag and our circadian rhythms were out of whack (twins waking at 2 am ready to play, DH never woke up so I was up all night for several nights with them), Maya was sick,
the twins were sick, and then I got sick...had to get unpacked, the twins outgrew the 'baby jail' enclosure and kept trashing the house, one thing after another. All through this I never had any red flags about what was to come. The only warning I had was that Moose wouldn't purr for me, at all--I figured he was upset that we'd been gone so long but that he'd 'forgive' me pretty soon. Little did I know...:*(

By Friday morning I was so sick I called DH at work and told him I wasn't going to make it through the rest of the day. He came home, I went to bed, and didn't wake up until Saturday morning. Felt a lot better by then, fixed breakfast for everyone, and got back to work unpacking and doing what needed to be done.

I noticed that when Moose tried to jump up on the kitchen bar to watch me wash dishes, he almost fell off the counter. I told him to be careful and watch where he was going! Stupid me, I thought he was being clumsy. *sigh* Ditto a few hours later when he followed me into the bathroom. His usual pattern was to jump on the side of the tub, step over onto my lap, then up onto the bathroom sink, where I would reach over and turn on the water so he could lap at it like 'a jungle kitty', I always called him. He missed the side of the tub when he jumped, I caught him, but then he couldn't get up from my lap to the sink. I started to suspect something was wrong, but I didn't know HOW wrong it would be! :*(

Later I noticed he seemed to be kind of un-energetic, totally unlike his usual behavior. I saw that he wasn't eating and drinking anything, and as the day went on, he started getting very wonky back legs, like he'd had a stroke or something :*( I gave him some baked chicken (which he usually scarfs up) and he turned his nose up at it...by then I KNEW something was wrong. I called the weekend emergency animal hospital and asked if they thought I should bring him in? They said yes, I should because the clumsy, messed up back legs didn't sound right. I thank GOD that I went ahead and took him in, or else he wouldn't have made it through the night!

Got him in his carrier, took him to the hospital--by then it was almost midnight, IIRC--no one else was around so we were seen fast. We were shown into one of the exam rooms, I took Moose out of his carrier, and he came to me and hid his head under my arm because he was afraid. I had to help him sit up because his back legs were not cooperating. I really thought he'd had a stroke, and I was really scared. I prayed to God that Moose would be okay! What would I do if I ever lost my best friend?? I didn't even want to imagine such a thing. I was sure the vets could fix whatever was wrong. Right? *sigh*

The vet came, checked Moose, and said he was dehydrated. I was surprised because Moose *had* been drinking water prior to Friday when I got knocked out by sickness--I couldn't say if he had on Friday or Saturday though. The vet also said "He's got 'lumpy' kidneys, they should be smooth, I don't think that's good...but they aren't shrunken, which is good..." Okay,
whatever that means? Then he said, we need to get some IV fluids in him, but let me run some bloodwork first. Said he'd take Moose to the back to draw the blood, and bring him right back--45 minutes later!! (Of course just as the vet comes back, DH calls wanting to know what's going on, he didn't pay attention to me when I told him I was taking Moose to be checked) The vet brings Moose back, who comes to me and hides under my arm again. The vet has a lab report in his hand, looks at me, looks at Moose, and says (what a sucky bedside manner!!): "THIS IS GRIM." :*(

Moose's kidneys and their levels were so high they were literally off the range chart their computer used...oh, crap! He told me Moose had lost most of his kidney function, and because he was dehydrated that had worsened...because of that he'd not been eating properly
so he was also anemic which accounted for the back leg weakness. The vet implied that maybe we should put Moose to sleep (at that moment is when my life moved into the Twilight Zone where I now live) but that there *were* some options to consider that might extend his life...I was stunned, but asked what he would recommend for the weekend until we could take Moose to Dr. Mac, our regular vet, on Monday. He said IV fluids all weekend, and possibly antibiotics in case there was an infection causing problems. I told him do whatever he could to help Moose! He explained it could get expensive, I told him that wasn't a problem. I have some gold jewelry I could sell if I needed to, to save Moose. I kissed Moose goodbye and left empty handed with a frightened heart for home, at almost 2 in the morning. Cue the Twilight Zone music! I prayed for Moose to respond positively to treatment so we could get him home, and get things back to NORMAL. I had to find NORMAL again after that 5 weeks of turmoil~ I didn't really need all this added emotional stress worrying about Moose! :-O

Called and talked to a different vet Sunday morning, he was more positive, and said Moose seemed to be responding well to the IV fluids. The relief I felt was awesome, my furbaby was going to be all right, thank you, God! :*) They said they wanted to keep Moose one more night to continue the IVs to rehydrate him. I picked up Moose the next morning (Monday, July 26th). He looked so much better, but he was a bit thinner and had a bright pink bandage on his right front leg with a catheter for an IV in it in case he needed more fluids. I was so happy to see him! :*) The kids and I took him on over to Dr. Mac's clinic several miles away. Once there, Dr. Mac said he wanted to keep him for the day, give him some more fluids, and run another blood test to see what his current kidney levels were, and he would call me about 5ish. I wasn't super worried at that point, Dr. Mac has taken care of Moose for 14 years, and I knew Moose was in good hands.

I started getting a little anxious around 4:30 and decided to call at 4:45 in case the lab results had come in early. "You must be psychic, the fax with Moose's results is printing right now--HOLY CRAP! That's amazing!!"--The vet's voice was incredulous and I told him I hoped it was a GOOD amazing..."I'm afraid not," he said. "We wanted to see what Moose's levels were after undergoing intense rehydration this weekend with the IV fluids. His BUN (blood, urea, nitrogen) numbers should be in the 20-30 range--but after all those fluids it's
*237*!! I shudder to think what it was Saturday night when you first took him in, if it's that high now!"

That's when I started fearing for Moose's life. :*( Dr. Mac had us go ahead and pick Moose up for the evening, so he could be more comfortable around his family and home instead of in the hospital alone all night (I feel like he thought Moose would die that night and wanted us around him instead of Moose being alone, though he didn't say that). So Moose came home, terribly weak, but showing signs of improvement when he tried to walk. I fixed him a little place to sleep, offered him water in the bathroom sink (supporting him so he wouldn't slip) which he drank for a few minutes, little laps at a time. Started researching kidney failure in cats and found a WONDERFUL Yahoo support group called CRF (later on when it was time for me to go to bed I couldn't leave him alone on the floor so I spent the night in the recliner (as we would do occasionally in the past when I had insomnia) and fixed a place on my lap for him to sleep, which he did through most of the night. Tried to get him to eat in the morning but like the night before he wouldn't eat anything solid.

Took him back to Dr. Mac on Tuesday and the vet gave me the bad news that Moose's kidneys were functioning way below 30%, and were only getting worse according to the lab results. :*( He drew me a chart and showed the progression, told me that 90-95% of all cats were asymptomatic with this kind of renal/kidney failure UNTIL they had a big crash, that it wasn't caused by the long trip when we were gone (I was kicking myself and blaming myself for the crash) and that it would have happened if we'd been there or not--cats simply don't drink enough water to stay properly hydrated, he said, and that caused the dehydration and anemia--not uncommon in a cat of his advanced age (14 years). Final diagnosis: FATAL end stage renal failure. :*( :*(

Dr. Mac told me treatment options, most of which were outrageous and not feasible (transplants, dialysis), and I agreed I didn't want to do all that...there were other doable things though, like giving Moose daily IV injections (taking approx. 5 minutes or so) under the skin on the back of his neck, and taking a pill in the morning and evening...until he began eating on his own I would have to hand feed him with syringes. All very doable for me--Moose had taken care of me emotionally for so very many years, it was time for me to take care of him physically however I could, to make him comfortable in his last days/weeks/years? with us!

So our "new normal" began on July 28th. Dr. Mac trained me in how to do the sub-q fluids (I was 2 hours late for our appt because Moose HID from me, knowing we were going to the vet! :-) For the next 12 days, I thought Moose might actually be one of those lucky cats I read about on CRF that stabilized and gained an extra couple of years, but sadly, it wasn't meant to be. Although Moose gained back the weight he'd lost, he never ate cat food on his own again (just some of his favorite whole kernel corn and a small amount of grilled chicken Maya shared with him)--he had to have a special kind of renal diet, canned food, which he hated but took the syringe feeding pretty well. He hated the tablets and did well with those at first, but not so much later on, he got pretty good at pushing the pill out of his mouth in a multitude of ways. Smart cookie! :-) He started doing some of his "Moosie" things, didn't have a lot of energy but he was able to move around the house without much trouble. I found him at different times upstairs in the nursery, sleeping on the rocking chair; he would wander around the back yard exploring in the mornings, before it would get too hot outside, resting in all his favorite places; hanging out in my master closet, the front room where all the twins' toys are, in front of the kitchen doorway, and he was also going to the bathroom in the big litterbox in our laundry room (I put a stool in there to help him get over the side).

The one un-Moose thing he wasn't doing was--purring. Not a single purr since all these health issues kicked in. I felt in my heart that he was still upset with me for disappearing all those days and weeks we were in India :*( even though the vet said that wasn't the reason...at times, due to some minor incontinence, I would have to clean up Moose (much to his embarrassment) and then I would use his favorite hairdryer (he used to jump up next to Maya when we'd blow dry her hair, he loved to feel the warm air on his fur while we brushed him) to make sure he didn't catch cold. Still, no purring although it was clear he was enjoying the warm air and attention. Several nights I was able to sleep in the recliner, our old favorite place whenever I'd have insomnia, and he'd climb up in my lap (as the days went on though I'd pick him up) and he'd find his favorite sleep position, and snooze on my lap just like the old days when I'd been pregnant with Maya and the twins. :*) I cherish those memories now, especially the night of August 8th, our final time to share the recliner together. :*(

We had fallen into a routine, I was giving Moose the sub-q fluids in the morning (most of the time it went without any problems), then feeding him several small meals via the syringes, throughout the day. At night I would wake up at various times and taking a small flashlight, search for him around the house, always feeling an incredible relief to find him curled up asleep somewhere (under our bed, in the closet, sometimes in the master bathtub, or the guest bathtub). He started having some problems with constipation and 'hard' poop, so there was minor leaking from his back end. I started putting old towels down for him in his favorite places, and in the tubs, and using wipes to clean his bottom when needed (more embarrassment but he loved being clean better). Sang his favorite silly songs to him and would spend as much extra time with him when I could. Maya helped keep the twins busy so I could attend to Moose as necessary, God bless her! She was my rock throughout the India trip, and now she was my rock while I was doing 'kitty hospice' for Moose.

On Sunday, August 8th, I had scheduled a small birthday party for the twins at Chuck E. Cheese for family and friends (the twins' third party, they'd had two in India but since my camera had been lost LONG STORY I had no pictures or videos of them). The party turned out great, and everyone, especially Sam and Sarah, had a blast! Maya and her friend Maya got to go into this booth that blew tickets at them, and they managed to catch over a 1000 of them, and they purchased this giant tootsie roll pillow with them (they plan to share)--Maya declared it was her best day EVER! :-) Unfortunately, her WORST day ever was coming, a day later. :*(

TOMORROW: MOOSE GOES HOME, BACK TO GOD WHO HAD LENT HIM TO US.

Gulf "Oilbama" Leak Meter

2010-05-28T10:58:00.000-05:00

Team Sarah's Mama Grizzly logo

2010-05-23T08:42:00.000-05:00

Going in the sidebar immediately. Love it! :-)

Tax Day TEA Party April 15, 2010!

2010-04-17T11:45:00.000-05:00

We didn't get to attend any TEA parties on Thursday because of the distance (lots of TEA parties met together for safety reasons after hearing about liberal 'infiltraitors' and 'crashers' planning to cause mayhem)--this was the big one in the DFW area. Sure wish we could have gone, it looks wonderful and patriotic! And not one single "racist" or "violent" sign in the entire place! I am so sick and tired of the liberal media/MSM who are in bed with HolyObama maligning me and my children and friends who are exercising our God-given, constitutional rights!

We are NOT 'racists'. We are NOT anti-tax. We are NOT anti-government.

We ARE "THE PEOPLE" which includes EVERY AMERICAN, REGARDLESS OF RACE, CREED OR RELIGION.

We ARE anti-EXCESSIVE TAXATION/'BIG SPENDING' which equals GENERATIONAL THEFT.

We ARE anti-"BIG" GOVERNMENT, which equals the loss of our Constitutionally protected FREEDOMS.

WE ARE THE PEOPLE. WE WILL REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER.

TIME'S UP, OBAMA. TIME'S UP, PELOSI. TIME'S UP, REID. TIME'S UP, FRANK.
And that goes for the rest of the corrupted ones in Washington DC and the rest of the states, regardless of party affiliations! If you are corrupt and committing anti-American choices the rest of us here in 'flyover country' have to pay, YOUR TIME IS UP. WE THE PEOPLE WILL NOT BE MOCKED BY OUR ALLEGED "LEADERS" ANY MORE!

VOTE THEM ALL OUT IN 2010 & 2012. WE THE PEOPLE WILL FINALLY BE HEARD!!

M-C's "April Blog Candy Giveaway" is HERE! :-)

2010-04-06T20:20:00.000-05:00

All right, all you crafters/scrapbookers out there! This contest is nothing to sneeze at! Look at all of the cool stuff you could win!!

"24 Adirondack Pigment Pens
1 Bo Bunny MOM book
1 set of Tim Holtz Swivel Clamps
1 Tattered Rose Distress Ink Pad
1 Teresa Collins Clear Tear Drop
1 Set of MM Tags (Varsity Girl) "

But WAIT! There's MORE! LOL. :-)
Check out the details at
"M-C's Friendship Corner" Blog

Goodbye, Layla Grace

2010-03-09T23:01:00.000-06:00

From her Twitter page today:
"Layla went to play with the angels early this morning. Rest in peace precious Layla. 11/26/2007 - 3/9/2010" about 10 hours ago via web
You are gone now, but not easily forgotten. I am grieving as if I'd lost one of *my* own children! :*( :*(

Thank you, God, for the Marsh family and be with them at this sad time...we grieve for the physical body but rejoice that Layla's spirit is now pain-free and in Heaven with our Lord, Jesus! :*)

Please keep mom Shanna, dad Ryan, 9 y/o sister Jenna and 3 y/o sister Claire in your prayers. This is a devastating thing for any child or parent to go through, neuroblastoma cancer...but thanks to Layla's story, I know what to watch for in *my* Sam and Sarah and Maya Grace, and I'm eternally grateful for that. And now the world will have a face for a terrible illness that most people had never heard of, but will understand much better, if my guess is right--Layla's mom and dad are going to be spreading awareness and sharing Layla's story from now on to prevent other families from going through the hell of childhood cancer that they have. I thank them so much for sharing their child with *me* and so many others online, and for motivating me to find out more to protect my kids!

What else is stunning to me is that people are STILL signing on to Layla's Facebook page and her Twitter page! Her FB page is now 62,826 members strong, all praying for Layla Grace and her family, and her Twitter page now has 45,166 followers!! Amazing! God's Hand is at work in so very many lives, all united behind this special little child. I wish He had answered our prayers differently, but yes, we prayed for Layla's pain to end, and we prayed for her healing, and that's what happened--only not here on earth, but in Heaven. So bittersweet! :*( :*)

A few days ago I found family home videos of Layla Grace posted on YouTube, these are my favorites, I think. What a spirit this child had! I can't wait to meet you in Heaven, little sister in Christ! :*)

("In her hospital room Layla tells us how she really feels about bed time. There's no picture because the room was dark.")

Sam's in Love!

2010-03-06T17:55:00.000-06:00

Yes, my son has found a new friend. Wonder if it's serious?? ;-)
This could be a DWTS audition tape, woot!

"When a miracle becomes too much to ask for..."

2010-03-06T17:48:00.000-06:00

A friend blogged about Layla Grace and how this child has affected her life. In many ways I agree with her reactions, the emotions that this story dredges up I have also been experiencing--HOWEVER, I don't believe in her title! As a Christian, I believe a miracle is NEVER too much to ask of God, especially since He told us--"With God, ALL things are possible." And of course, I have my 3 miracles Sam, Sarah & Maya Grace proving to me every day that God DOES answer prayers. :*) :*) :*)

Please keep Layla Grace in your prayers, for complete healing. And should God decide to take her home to Him, for peace and comfort and healing for her parents Ryan and Shanna and her big sisters Jenna (9) and Claire (4).

Pray for Layla Grace!

2010-02-26T23:02:00.000-06:00

Right now. Stop what you are doing and pray for this 2 y/o child who is battling cancer. Pray for a miracle.

Layla Grace's twitter to get updates on how she's doing:
http://www.twitter.com/LaylaGrace
Their web site:
http://www.laylagrace.org/

And pray for her mommy and daddy and big sisters. Pray with all your might for the Hand of God to touch this precious little girl and those like her with a miracle of complete healing! In Jesus Christ's Holy Name, we pray, Lord, heal this baby and hold her safe in Your Loving Arms! Amen, and amen.

Here are some video tributes to Layla Grace on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ednmexUmgao

The Great Snowstorm of '10

2010-02-22T12:33:00.000-06:00

Last week Texas had record setting snowfall, and our area was no exception. We got about 8-10 inches of snow here! The kids had a blast in the snow, for a little while until they got too cold, that is. :-)

Snuggly warm with dad.

Sarah wouldn't keep her gloves on,
and her hands got really cold!

Sam trying to figure out what all
this cold white stuff is!

A pretty scene of the front of our house.
However, it snowed so much we lost two
big branches on one of our trees due to the
weight of the ice and snow on them!

Started out as a snowman building project,
but quickly degenerated into a snowball fight.
Note Sarah in a matrix position out front, LOL.

Prayers for Haiti and Other New Year thoughts

2010-01-15T16:04:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year 2010!!

I've been remiss in keeping up with my blog here--life is busy with the twins getting into everything now, learning more and more every day. :-) Maya's had a busy schedule with Music Memory (came in 5th place at competition last weekend, woot!) but we've been skipping TaeKwonDo too much, MUST get back to a regular class schedule! I'm also planning to start exercising at 24 Hr Fitness (we have memberships) and the twins can go to the child care there. Looks like the horror of swine flu has passed (a bit exaggerated by the govt?) so I think the twins will be fine. They need to socialize with other kids now that they are bigger. Can you believe in about 6 months they'll be 2 years old?!? That's just crazy! :-) I'm hoping to start taking them to the library for story time every week (I wonder if Barnes and Noble still does that too? Have to check) and also to find a playgroup with kids their age.A Mother's Day Out once a week would be nice too! :-)

Been hanging out on Facebook with friends from my old parenting newsgroup when I can. Twitter too, when I get a chance! Just not enough hours in the day to do everything I want to do. I'm planning on starting back with Flylady schedules next week, now that the majority of the house is under control...of course my hobby room remains the bane of my existence, LOL. :-)

Had a relatively quiet New Year's Eve here at home, we got some of that apple cider champagne for Maya and all three of us rang in the New Year. (We actually missed the ball falling in NY the first time, but caught the repeat at Texas time).

Dad and Maya say CHEERS!
This week DH has been out of town on business, unfortunately we discovered that Maya had been exposed to head lice so the house has been turned upside down getting rid of them (only found 2 live ones, but that was 2 too many!). FINALLY got a handle on the mountain of laundry and toys and pillows, etc. that had to be sterilized either in the washer or the dryer--oy! :-(

Got my bed set up again last night, so Maya and I were able to get a good night's sleep. The twins even cooperated by sleeping mostly through the night (Sarah woke up about 3 and I brought her back with me, Sam wanted to stay in his crib). What a difference good sleep makes!

So glad my house is back in order! I had the cleaning people over for the last time Wednesday morning. Unfortunately, they didn't do as good a spring cleaning job as they have in the past, but oh, well. Next time I'll get a more professional service. Gonna be awhile though--DH is planning a big trip for all of us to India this summer, for a big family reunion! Sounds like fun, although I hate messing with all the logistics and his scoffing of my concerns about child safety ("They don't need carseats in India, we never had one and we did just fine..." yada yada yada. *sigh*) And what about the plane trips? I found some neat harnesses but DH is going to fight me on those too I think:"Oh, they can just sit in the regular airplane seats with the regular seat belts on, what's the big deal?" Big deal? Sarah and Sam will figure out how to pop open those belts in about half a minute, d'oh! Men! LOL.

Still can't believe some of the pictures and videos coming out of Haiti after that big earthquake on Tuesday! I'm praying for help for all those suffering people SOON.
This is 2010, it's unbelievable that international help can't get there sooner...and I am so sure that somehow Obama will blame this whole thing on President Bush and America, as usual!

Can't wait for the Massachusetts election on Tuesday, what a race between liberal Martha Coakley and Republican (but not fully conservative)Scot t Brown...sounds like Obama and Reid and Pelosi are already planning to go nuclear on this Obamacare crap, if they do, it's all over but the cryin' this fall for Congress, and HolyO!!! >:-(

Baking a sour cream coffee cake right now while doing the remainder of the laundry...think I'll watch "Night at the Museum2" again. We rented it and watched it last night but I kept drifting off to sleep. :-) Hopefully that won't happen again tonite, although I am still severely sleep deprived!

Gotta get back to work, y'all. Good night, sleep tight, and don't let the terrorists (foreign OR domestic) win!!

Merry Christmas 2009!

2009-12-26T00:31:00.001-06:00

I Am So Angry Right Now!!

2009-12-24T01:48:00.000-06:00

Meeting Sarah Palin 12-04-09

2009-12-09T21:39:00.000-06:00

This is the story of how my 9 year old daughter Maya and I got to meet Sarah Palin when she came to the Dallas area suburb of Plano promoting her best-selling book "Going Rogue". All the glory to God for putting events in place so that we were able to attend, since it seemed at first we'd missed out completely! (Apologies for the incorrect date stamps on the pics, I changed batteries and didn't realize I needed to fix the date!)

As a Sarah Palin supporter, I participate in both Free Republic and Team Sarah, and both were instrumental in this whole situation. I reported to a TS blog post (where people were reporting their experiences in meeting the governor) that we'd lost the Ebay auction we were participating in, and a kind soul there (R. turned out to be the winner by default when the original winner reneged) contacted me by email--he only needed one ticket, did we want the other one? As Maya said, "D'UH!!" so arrangements were made and we found ourselves with the answer to our prayers in our hands. :-)

The only logistical problem I had was what to do with my toddler twins the day of the book signing at Legacy, my husband couldn't get the day off, we don't have extended family in our neighborhood...which was solved when my sister in law offered to spend Thursday night and keep the twins all day Friday. Maya and I were then able to go to the bookstore very early in the am since I was worried about parking. There's a small garage across the street from the bookstore and not much else since it's in a cramped location.

Maya was a little bit grumpy when I woke her up around 3:30 am (we had a bit of a drive and wanted to be there by 4:30-5:00 to be sure to get nearby parking), but was still very excited about finally getting to meet Sarah Palin. She's loved the governor since last year when we all first heard her during the campaign, and wants to someday meet Piper and Trig. I wanted Maya to have a chance to meet such a positive role model and I was delighted God had given us the chance. Unfortunately for us, it was one of the first really cold mornings we'd had here in northern Texas, in fact, it had actually SNOWED at our home just 2 days earlier! And snow flurries were again being predicted for Friday morning. When we got in the van the temperature read in the low 30s...brrrr! We'd worn layered clothing and packed some warm blankets. As we pulled into the parking garage's street level floor (yay!) I saw several vehicles parked ahead of me. The Plano Police dept. (who did a WONDERFUL job that day) had already cordoned off the front of the bookstore area, and I could see people already lining up--it was a little before 5 am...as I literally turned off my van's engine, my cell phone beeped with a text message--it was R. saying he'd just gotten there and was #12 in line, would we like him to save 2 places for us next to him?? Again, Maya's response was "D'uh!" :-)

As we moved through the garage, one truck caught my eye, LOL:

I wore two home made badges on my coat(using duct tape and diaper pins, LOL)--

and one with a quote from JimRob from the day before:

I wanted Sarah to know how JimRob feels about her! :-)

I carried a couple of lawn chairs and my Amazon copy of "Going Rogue" (yes, I knew I couldn't get it signed) to read while we waited, since the store said people couldn't line up until 6 am, or get into the store until 9 am. The signing itself was scheduled for 11:00 am to 2 pm. That meant several hours out in the weather! It was an adventure for Maya, not so much for me. :-) (Although I must say those were the best porta-potties I'd ever been in! A heated trailer with stalls and running water, what a blessing!) Right behind us several more people started showing up in the line, everyone cold but really excited to be meeting Sarah Palin in person!!!

Maya's playing her Nintendo DS under the blanket here, trying to stay warm!

An employee was selling coffee before 6 am, we were still waiting outside the barricades at this point.

At 6 am people were allowed inside the barricade area after showing their tickets. We all moved quickly to the area where we would wait for the next 3 hours, right in front of the entrance. The barricades were arranged such that the line was serpentine, so more people could fit in the small area there. Gradually more and more people began showing up. Reporters came around and began interviewing people--Maya and I were interviewed by Channel 11/CBS News, Dallas Morning News, and several others while we waited. (I was tickled pink to see us in an online DMN video later, where the reporter from the DMN focused on my homemade FR badge!! :-) At one point, R.'s wife came and brought some of those chemical hand warmer thingies, which Maya loved and promptly stuck in her shoes, since she couldn't feel her toes, she said. Had some wonderful conversations about politics and teaching (I'm a retired teacher) with several of the ladies standing/sitting in line near us.

Where we were standing we had a wonderful view of a mini-stage the store had set up for Sarah to speak, but in the end she didn't address the crowd there.

We also had a visit from local conservative talk show host Mike Gallagher from KSKY AM, who got the crowd even MORE fired up than they were! He was a great cheerleader, and even chatted with me and Maya while he was waiting for some sound issues with the speakers to be fixed.

That's the DMN reporter standing with Mike.

After awhile a store employee came out and gave directions on how the signing would take place--

No going anywhere without your ticket!!

Ever get a song stuck in your head? I felt like Grandpa Joe in "Willy Wonka", singing "I've got a golden ticket!" in my head over and over again, LOL.

Around 8:30 or so I folded up our lawn chairs and took as much stuff as possible back to the van.
The first 50 people in line were finally allowed to go in the store at 9:00 am. We followed the crowd up three flights of stairs until we were directed to a section near the windows overlooking the parking lot. Everyone began immediately pulling off their heavy coats since it was very warm inside the store! We then had 2 more hours to wait. I spent time trying to make myself more presentable and put on makeup and pulled back my hair :-) while Maya played games on her Nintendo. I chatted with R. and told him again how thankful we were that he'd thought of us needing a ticket. While we were waiting there, Maya noticed the section we were in front of--the global warming section!! She scoffed, and I went over and saw Al Goracle's crap prominently displayed--stuck another book in front of it (back cover out) and Maya pointed to it--it was another Al Gore book! So I put yet another book in front of both of them, LOL.

(We thought we'd have to turn over our ticket, so we had R. take this picture of us with it)

R.'s shirt says it all! :-)

Global warming crap.

More crap!

Looking down a level at waiting fans.

Maya got stuck in a looooooong bathroom line! She got tickled when she came back because they started letting ladies use the men's room!

From our vantage point, we were able to see the parking garage across the street and the crowd below us. We spotted 3 motorcycle cops riding around, moving people out of the garage--which had a direct view of the place where Governor Palin would be sitting. Kind of neat to see all three bikes lined up in a row on the different levels protecting all of us from wackos.

Looking at the crowd, you could see many people still outside although quite a few were already in the store. On the outside of the barricades was a small crowd with people trying to buy tickets (we were offered $500 for ours at one point) and there was a man holding a very large "Palin" sign over his head, cheering on the crowd.

(At this point I have my one complaint about the bookstore's handling of things. They'd told us repeatedly that we couldn't take anything into the signing area with us, that they would have some sort of 'checkout' area where we could drop things off and pick them up after meeting the governor. We waited nearby for two hours and they should have had everyone check things in *then*. Although when we'd first arrived an employee snatched my book out of our bag and brought me a claim ticket to pick it up later.)

Right around 11:00 we saw the crowd without tickets below start running toward the left side of the store and line up along the barricades--our line began spreading the news-"SHE'S HERE!!" and I managed to snag a few pictures and a little bit of video before Maya got in front of me for a look. I should have kept looking after the governor passed below us, apparently Todd Palin was walking a ways behind her with Trig, and I missed it! :-(

I heard comments about how beautiful she looked, how nice it was of her to sign things for those in the crowd, including the guy with the giant sign (on one of the news videos online, he mentions that he has a son in Iraq or Afghanistan). Then, as she entered the store you could hear cheers of "Sarah! Sarah!" as she made her way through--Maya grabbed the camera and ran over to the edge to take pictures. She came back with just one:

I asked Maya why she didn't get more pics--"Mom, even though she's wearing high heels, she walks FAST!!!" :-)

We thought maybe she'd head up the stairs, but turns out she took the elevator up to the third floor--there was a small open section on leaving the elevator, and the crowd upstairs cheered when she stepped out and waved--then cheered again when Todd stepped out with Trig and waved too! :-) Then they moved out of sight. We gathered all of our things up and got back in the line properly. We had a few more minutes to wait because there was a VIP line ahead of us...there were several people in wheelchairs and some people pushing strollers (which made me wish for a moment that I'd brought the twins with me!) who got to go through first. Then it was our turn!

Unfortunately, as we walked past the section where the checkout area was, an employee grabbed me by the arm and started pulling our coats and bag out of my hands! I grabbed Maya as the crowd started moving around behind me, jostling to get by--she hollered at them and told them to bring their stuff to be checked in so there was a little bit of a bottleneck for a minute or so. But then we were back on our way! An employee handed us a business card for the professional photographer who would be taking pictures of all of those meeting Gov. Palin.

Maya marveled at a pyramid of "Going Rogue" books on our right. There were several people ahead of us and the line was moving FAST...my goodness, it was moving fast! Then it was finally our turn!

It's amazing to watch the governor signing books, shaking hands, and talking to people all at the same time...almost automatically. But when Maya stopped in front of her, *she* stopped, leaned forward, and started asking Maya several questions: "Hi! What's your name?"
"Maya." "How old are you?" (still signing books but totally focused on *my* daughter, amazing!)"9." "Oh, you're in third grade! Are you in any sports?" "Yes," said Maya, and I said, "Karate..." feeling people pushing behind me. Sarah reached out and shook Maya's hand, pushing a book straight to Maya instead of off to the side where an employee was scooping them up and putting them on a pedestal. At the same time, the remarks I'd been practicing for hours flew out of my head ("God bless you, Governor and Godspeed straight to the White House!") and I became verklempted that this woman was making my child the center of her universe for those few seconds they were together, and when she asked my name, I was so choked up I could barely croak it out :*) Then she shook my hand and smiled straight at me, and said "Thank you for coming!" before she was talking to the next person in line. Maybe 20 seconds had elapsed from the moment we stepped in front of her.

We were ushered to our left, Maya clutching her book to her chest, and an employee handed us a bookmark and other papers. They also said we could keep our original tickets!

We were ushered to the checkout section where I got my book back, and our coats and bag, then we were directed toward the stairs nearby. A security person said it was okay to take pictures as we went down the stairs as long as we didn't back up the line.

At the bottom of the stairs we paused for a moment and saw reporters interviewing people who'd just had books signed...we didn't see Sarah's parents or Todd and Trig anywhere at that time, but apparently they were out and about later on mixing with people. We went into the attached coffee shop and stopped to put our coats on and to get our bearings. Maya was sooooo excited and amazed that Sarah knew she was in third grade without being told. :-) A woman was standing nearby and turned and spoke. "Maya! Did you get to meet Sarah Palin?" (I'm constantly amazed at how many people know my daughter, LOL, she definitely has a future as a politician!) I caught the woman's name badge--Cynthia Vega from our local Channel 8 news channel. She explained they'd been standing in line together for the bathroom for awhile. Maya told her about meeting the governor, then more people started coming through and we were being ushered toward the door (but we could have hung around for a little while I think, they weren't running people out in a mean way or anything).

Going back outside it seemed even colder since we'd been warm for a few hours, but we didn't mind. We made our way around the barricaded area toward the parking garage, arriving at the same time as R. "I found the bus!" he told us, pointing around the side of the bookstore facing the freeway. We gave him one last thank you hug and headed over in that direction, books in hand.

At the bus, there were of course several police officers guarding it. I asked one of them if it was okay to get close and take pictures of it--he said sure, just don't try to get on the bus! (Do people really need to be told that?!) So we took pictures of each other next to the bus.

That's a moose antler decorated with fancy calligraphy saying "Going Rogue" in the window.

A young man was talking to a girl nearby and we asked him to take our picture together (he briefly interviewed us for KRLD radio afterward):

After that we went home, having had a great time overall! We learned later that pretty much everyone who was in the no-ticket line was allowed to purchase a book and get it autographed--class act, that governor! :-)

Some online articles:

Star Telegram: "Hundreds line up in North Texas cold for Sarah Palin book signing" (nice video)

Dallas Morning News: James Ragland column: "At Plano book signing, Sarah Palin shows she's a force to be reckoned with"

DMN: "Palin brings star power to Plano"

Channel 11/CBS: "Sarah Palin Makes Plano Book Tour Stop"

Channel 33: "Sarah Palin stops in Plano for book signing of Going Rogue"

NBCDFW: "Palin Mania Hits Plano Bookstore "

WFAA Channel 8: "Sarah Palin signs books in Plano" (This is the reporter Maya stood in the bathroom line with)

Keep Keith & Judy & Brooks in your prayers, okay?

2009-12-03T08:37:00.000-06:00

I 100% believe in miracles and the power of prayers--none of my children would be here otherwise! Pray for complete healing for Keith, and strength for Judy, that Keith will awaken in God's perfect timing, completely healed and whole. You can follow their story at Judy's blog here.

Maya meets Mike Huckabee

2009-12-01T13:18:00.000-06:00

(We attended this event last week, before Clemmons killed those police officers in WA--a lot of people have been blaming Huckabee for that, because he commuted the guy's sentence a decade ago...I think there's more than one person to blame for this man to have gotten out of prison!)

Maya and I got to Borders just before 5 o'clock on Friday, November 27th (he was scheduled from 5-6 pm).She was sooooo excited, but asked me if he was a RINO, LOL (she's learning), I told her yes in ways, but still better than a liberal! Reminded her NOT to call him that to his face--she said okay, she still likes his voice and his music playing on his Fox show.
:-)

The parking lot was pretty full this time. Walked in and saw a bunch of people all around, not to capacity, but a good showing, a couple hundred people at least. Store employees directed us toward the far back of the store to a blue taped line on the floor...got in the line and discovered that because we had a blue wristband, the blues got to cut ahead of the oranges in front of us, so we moved up quite a ways.

Maya took the camera and went out front to take some pics of his tour bus and came back.

Someone with Huck's entourage (had on an official jacket) came through with a camera and said they were shooting a behind the scenes dvd, for us to smile when he came through the second time to film the line, Maya thought that was cool and clowned around a bit when he passed by...

A couple minutes later we heard cheers erupt from the front of the store and moving throughout as the governor moved to the signing podium (wasn't a table like we were expecting). Maya took the camera again and went to take a few pictures of him, came back all tickled. :-)

Visited with the people around us, unfortunately some of them weren't well informed...when we mentioned we'd tried to get tickets to Sarah Palin's signing, one young woman in front of us said (in a matter of fact way) "Well, she's not very popular, she came in third in the polls after Gov. Huckabee and Mitt Romney"...I had to bite my tongue at that. ;-)

Then our line started moving rapidly (he was only supposed to be there for an hour)

and the next thing we knew a lady took our books, opened them to the title page and directed us toward the podium. Unfortunately it was a little tall for Maya but she was able to peek over the edge when it was her turn. Gov. Huckabee was very kind and asked her her name, she told him but he couldn't hear so she repeated it. Then he told her she had a pretty/beautiful smile and shook her hand...I was videotaping the whole thing very rushed, and for some reason Maya kept moving back out of the frame, finally I told her scoot over and tried to take a pic of both, but cut off his head ;-)

Here's the video I took these stills from: Maya meets Mike Huckabee

Then he shook my hand and said, Mom, you'll need to lock her up when she's 15! She's beautiful! :-) And by then I was being rushed along so all I could say back was, she already thinks she's 19! LOL. Then I was ushered aside...took Maya a little distance away with Huck in the background and took a pic of them sorta together.

We went outside and took a few more pics of each other in front of the bus,

then it started moving, so we left the store and went shopping at a kid's store across the parking lot. :-)

Sure hope and pray there'll be an after action report on meeting Sarah Palin at the booksigning here! Still praying for a miracle to happen with that situation!

Sarah Palin Book Tour Stopping Here!

2009-12-01T00:37:00.000-06:00

Well, not here here, but at a bookstore 12 miles from us! :-)

We've had quite an adventure trying to get tickets--durn thing sold out completely by the third day, and stupid me, I had a chance the day before to purchase 2 over the phone and didn't!!! And no one was willing to part with them! Found a single auction on ebay, jumped in, and sure enough, there was only 4 of us bidding. I outbid the others several times (Maya said we could use her savings, about $200, because meeting Sarah would be worth it, she's one of Maya's favorite role models)--when it got waaaaaaay higher than that we had to drop out. The final price for the winner was $329.00! Isn't that crazy?? But Sarah is that popular around here!

Kept bugging the bookstore about any tickets that might be returned but they decided not to reissue them...sadly Maya and I thought we wouldn't be able to attend despite trying to find just one extra ticket (store said we could both enter with one ticket) until someone on TeamSarah.org offered to help us. Turns out that the original winner of the tickets backed out due to payment logistics and possible authenticity problems, and this fellow Ron, who had bid in the last 10 seconds, and put me in third place, had won by default. He paid $5 less. He emailed me at TS.O where I had posted our sad story and said he wanted to help Maya get to meet Sarah. He only needed one ticket for himself (his wife had to work) so he was willing to sell it for half of what he had paid. Maya said yes immediately, so tonite we met him over at Chick-Fil-A's (I researched him on ebay, he's been there since 'o2, had 400 transactions and has a 100% satisfaction rating, so he seemed trustworthy) and I checked the ticket out. It's the real thing, and has the original receipt attached, so there shouldn't be any problems using it on Friday.

I'm hoping the store doesn't change it's mind about me and Maya going through together (I may have the twins too, no details yet of a babysitter) but if they do and say only one can go, Maya is going to get to meet Sarah Palin, and get her autographed book. Ron, who also has a young daughter, told me, if that was the case, he didn't mind keeping an eye on Maya when they waited in line to make sure there wasn't any problems with anyone bothering her or anything, although I don't think anyone would. Seems like all the Sarah Palin supporters I've come across have been just plain, decent, nice people!

So we give all the glory to God for giving us the opportunity to attend this booksigning! We went to Mike Huckabee's booksigning last Friday (I'll try to post that story tomorrow, it's late now) and everything was pretty smooth. Praying that this Friday will be the same, although I suspect the numbers of people showing up will be in the thousands just like other stops on her tour. :-)

Happy Birthdays!

2009-10-19T22:53:00.000-05:00

We started with a blank cake from Sam's.
Fondant Hoops & Yoyo! Wheeeee!
Some little flowers and polka dots.
All put together and the candles are lit!
Maya doing her birthday thing!
Awesome kid! Fun cake!
Her favorite gift from a BFF.
A pink mini-MP3 player, just what she wanted!
Nana & Thata gave Maya the best gift of all--
A beautiful gold and cubic zirconium ring! Shiny!
--------------------------------
I had my 48th (!) birthday earlier this month. We all met for dinner down in Dallas at an Indian restaurant called Kalachandji's, one of my favorites!
We had a great time! My in-laws gave me a beautiful necklace, earrings, and ring set--now if I can just get DH to take me out on a date! LOL.
Here's a rare picture of me, LOL, with my birthday kugel my friend Denise made me.

Today was Maya's 9th (!) birthday! We had a big shindig at Chuck E. Cheese for her yesterday and she had a blast. :-) Today her aunt and uncle came over and surprised her after she got home from school. We put the candles back in her leftover cake (and there was lots left over!) and sang happy birthday to her, and had ice cream too. She had a nice long visit with both of them, and they even stayed later on for dinner, and my brother watched the football game with DH for awhile.

Sam's been a little under the weather, but seems to be doing much better tonite. Praying that no one gets sicker!

Nana and Thata are leaving on Sunday--I don't know who is going to be more upset--the twins and Maya, or them! :*( We have had a very nice visit these past few months, I've been learning a lot about Indian recipes and ways to cook DH's favorite foods from Nana, and Thata has been a BIG help working around the house and the yard. Unfortunately though they need to go home to India, and get back to their regular lives. DH and his brother in Oz are planning a big family reunion in Bangalore in the summer, which sounds far away, but is actually only about 5 or 6 months from now. Maya can't wait! She's never been. The twins should be walking AND talking much better by then. The grandparents are afraid they'll forget who they are, but I don't think so. They are both pretty smart cookies! :-)

Above are some pictures from Maya's party. The theme was Hoops and Yoyo (the Hallmark cartoons), they just crack her up! I found everything I needed for the party at the Hallmark store EXCEPT cake decorations and birthday invites! Isn't that weird?? So Maya and I just made our own invitations out of thank you cards, and we got a fondant recipe online and made our own cake toppers. They weren't perfect, but we had fun and they turned out just fine for Maya! Wasn't all that hard to do either!

Well, now I'm getting a bit sniffly--hope it isn't the flu or anything. It's been really windy here so I bet it's just plain old allergies. Still miserable either way! But at least allergies don't cause muscle aches, etc. and they clear it much faster.

Gotta get some housework done tonite now that everyone's gone to bed, the cleaning ladies will be here tomorrow, and I've got to clean up so they can clean up, LOL! It's the strangest thing! :-)

Sarah Palin's Book is #1!

2009-10-02T01:03:00.000-05:00

And it's not going to be released until November 17th, LOL!

Liberal heads are literally exploding over at amazon.com in the discussion section of the page selling the governor's book. Hysterical that they keep using the same old tired memes to describe Sarah, bwahahaha! "Quitter!" "Bad mother!" "Stupid bimbo!" Blah, blah, blah.

Oh, are these elitist snobs going to be surprised come election time in 2010 and 2012!!

Here's what the cover of her book will be:

Lovely! Sarah Palin for President in 2012!!

Mission Accomplished!!!

2009-09-28T13:32:00.001-05:00

Before pic, that's the cap
on the titanium implant
post that is embedded in
my jawbone. (That molar's
blue because I have such a
large filling there, and teeth
are transparent and it reflects
the metal filling.)

After pic: after several years of braces,
bone graft and gum surgery,
surgery embedding the post
into my jawbone, and finally
a porcelain/metal (gold?) crown
cemented on top--wooooohooooo!!!

Well, it's done, finally! Last Thursday
my regular dentist, Dr. H, cemented
the porcelain crown to the implant post.
Unfortunately we had a little trouble
Eventually the gum will grow up
and over the base of the crown
there...I am amazed at how natural
the color and feel of the implant is! :-)

Now to work on chewing food on that side
of my mouth after 30 years of NOT eating
very much there, because it hurt when food
poked the gum there!! :-) Thank you, God,
for all the people who helped get me here!

2 More Days!!

2009-09-22T22:44:00.001-05:00

Two more days, and then this several year dental journey will be complete!! Well, almost. On Thursday I have a dentist appointment to get my crown for my dental implant...background: I was born without a permanent tooth (19) and for years my dentists wanted me to get a bridge, which consisted of grinding down two perfectly healthy teeth on either side and connecting crowns with a fake tooth in between. Aside from the $2000 up front costs, it would have been a headache having to clean under that fake tooth as well, so I always passed. My vanity over having a missing tooth on the far side of my mouth just never was that worrisome.

Until several years ago, when a routine dental cleaning revealed that I'd had a LOT of bone loss in that spot since the cleaning 6 months before. Apparently when there's no tooth there, the bone erodes, and starts taking the bone in the next teeth as well!! NOT good!

Getting a bridge would be pointless, since it wouldn't take care of the bone problem, just the cosmetic one. I needed a dental implant to take care of the bone problem, because the implant would encourage bone growth. The problem was that after all these years the two teeth on either side were leaning over (not completely, but enough to be a problem) and an implant post wouldn't fit. So either both teeth on either side would have to be 'shaved' or ground back for the implant crown to fit, or I would have to have my teeth straightened the old fashioned way-with braces!

So on December 9, 2005 I had braces attached to my upper teeth, and in Feb. 2006 on my bottom teeth. Strange at my age (over 45) to be wearing braces :-) but better than having NO teeth at all due to bone loss! Wore them faithfully until June 4, 2008 (a month before I delivered the twins) and then I had to go through some bone graft dental surgery, heal up from that for several months, then the implant surgery, heal up from that for several months...FINALLY, the last step is happening in 2 more days!!

After that I have to go back to my orthodontist to get impressions made for new retainers. The bottom ones I have now are useless since there's a post in the empty space that used to be there...and soon there'll be a tooth in that spot, looking like it has always been there! I CAN'T WAIT!!! :-) :-) :-) God has blessed me with some good insurance and the means to pay the remainder, thank you Jesus!

"Rally912"/TEA Party March on Washington DC

2009-09-13T23:38:00.000-05:00

http://www.jeffhead.com/americaawakes.htm
Update: Turns out the picture below wasn't a picture of the DC912 Rally after all, but an old picture from a Promise Keepers conference years ago!! Above are pics from the actual 912 Rally, in a great collage by a fellow FReeper, Jeff Head! Awesome!

Totally forgot to mention how great this turned out yesterday!!! Here's a beautiful picture!!

Estimates are upwards to 2 MILLION participants!!

CAN YOU HEAR US NOW, HOLYO?!? LOLOL!!

'Sup with us :-)

2009-09-13T12:21:00.000-05:00

What can I say, busy as usual--700 emails behind, hanging out on FaceBook and Twitter when I have a chance, trying to organize my collection of over 4000 pictures from my extra hard drives over to FLICKR--whew. Since I blogged last time:

*DH and I had our 15th wedding anniversary. Didn't do anything since it was the middle of the week. Got some lovely red roses but forgot to take a pic of them.

*The twins are walking more steadily, and trying to talk...they giggle and laugh easily, to the delight of the grandparents and their big sister Maya. :-)
Did I post the video of Sam cracking up over Maya playing basketball? Can't remember. If I haven't I will after posting this update.

*The grandparents have decided to go back to India early due to their health (several major problems for both of them at their age) and also because they have a tenant leaving their rental property there who's lease expires soon, and they will need to fix up the place for a new tenant asap. I don't know who will be more upset,
the grandparents or the twins, who have gotten very attached to them! :*(

*Slowly, the housework is started to come together--I've been working on FLYLADY principles for a few years now, but there always seems to be distractions unfortunately and things get put off--Maya's room is very nearly done, the playroom probably around 80%, and my hobby room is around 50%. Can't wait to be totally finished someday sooooon!!!

*Starting to babyproof the house for the twins, they are able to climb the stairs now, so baby gates going up today! After that, no idea what the plans for the day are--it's rainy and dreary here, I'd love to open the doors and windows, but we've been having so much trouble with mosquitoes getting in and chewing all of us up (poor babies just scratch themselves raw! :*( and fire ants trying to escape the rain so they come in (babies have also had a few of those, I hate them!) so we're closed up unfortunately. The humidity is high, but not unbearable, since the outside temps are hovering around the 70s. Thank goodness!

We also have a butterfly funeral to plan--Maya adopted a deformed one and kept it alive for a week and a bit, and boy, did she sob when he finally died (me too! :*(
Fixed him up in a little coffin made from an old clear baby food container (rectangular with a lid), found an old scrap of material, blue with clouds leftover from the nursery decorations, folded it up and propped him on it upright, with a little pink flower under him...then she couldn't bury him in the yard because she wasn't ready, she said. So his little coffin's sitting up on the mantle of the fireplace--waiting for this rain to settle down so we can did a hole in the landscaping on the side of the house for him, where no one should bother him. I hope.

Gotta go get those gates up now.

Sam Belly Laughing

2009-09-01T10:33:00.000-05:00

Okay, blame Facebook!!

2009-08-25T22:50:00.000-05:00

I signed up a little while back, and yes, I am addicted! LOL! :-) Haven't meant to ignore my blog, but there's only so many hours in the day, what can I say?

Since my last check in here, Maya has started 3rd grade (yesterday) and she loves her new teacher Mrs. M. (who was one of the kinder teachers when Maya first started school, so a familiar friendly face for Maya). We thought there might be a problem when school started because Maya lost pretty much all of her best BEST BFFs this school year--a new school opened and a lot of teachers and kids transferred over there! But when we went to Meet the Teacher night last Thursday Maya found a lot of friends who may not have been BFFs, but now there is a chance for that to happen, so yay! All is well in the world.

Well, until this even when our showerhead broke and fell and hit Maya right on the lip, splitting it! Lots of TLC for Maya, and now she's sleeping like a baby in my BR.

Other news: Sammy has two new teeth. Both babies are now toddling around like little drunken penquins. They fall down, and get right back up most of the time. Talking in some foreign language too, with expressions and hand gestures to match--delighting their grandparents to no end. :-)

We adopted 3 catepillars about a week or so ago, they consumed TOTALLY the fennel plant we had in the back yard (started out with 6 total, no telling what happened to the other half)--looked'em up on line in google images, thought they were monarchs at first, but now I believe they are black swallowtails--was kind of cool to watch them turn into chrysalises (chrysali?) in the plastic shoe boxes we put them in!!

Gotta go get some rest now, it's been one of those days and I'm exhausted. I'll try to post some current pics of everyone soon!

Flickr

2009-08-15T17:14:00.001-05:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Take That, Fishy Snitchers Working for HolyO!!!

2009-08-07T19:09:00.000-05:00

Man, Obama&Co aren't wasting any time trying to turn America into Nazi Germany, is he?
White House Move to Collect 'Fishy' Info May Be Illegal, Critics Say

I am still praying that HolyO and all his cronies will be booted out of the White House before the end of this year!! I just pray that those on the side of right at these Town Hall meetings do not end up having Crispus Attucks citizens killed by HolyO's union thugs!! :-(

BTW, here's a funny response to the state controlled media calling conservative anger at the town hall meetings 'mobs'--MEET THE MOB. LOL!! :-)

Well, that was FAST!

2009-07-30T22:19:00.000-05:00

AP sources: Govt to suspend 'cash for clunkers'

Wow! HolyO's program only lasted what, 2 days, LOL! :-)
EPIC FAIL!!

Arachnophobia...

2009-07-24T22:11:00.001-05:00

Don't have it...much! LOL. :-)
I don't want to kill all spiders, and if we find them in the house we try out best to catch and release them out back. This one was on my patio a few days ago, having built a web between a chair and a flowerpot. I believe it is an orb spider, harmless but good for gardens, but those were some beautiful markings!

It wasn't quite as big as the picture seems, about the size of a skinny quarter. The next day it and the web was gone, hopefully it's killing bad bugs over in my garden area!

Here's the original picture:

500 Posts! Woohoo!! & An Anniversary!

2009-07-22T22:03:00.000-05:00

I've reached 500 posts in my blog, seems like just yesterday when I started it! :-)

Today is also special in a few ways to me. It was a dear friend's birthday, she was like my grandmother, and she died 11 years ago--again, seems like yesterday! Mimmie, I sure do miss you and wish you were here to meet Maya and the twins!! But I know we'll meet again someday! :*)

This was also my original due date with my twins last summer, of course, they showed up a little bit early, but still considered full term! Praise God! :*) :*)

And 6 years ago today, DH became an American citizen, taking his oath in San Francisco! Kudos to my hubby on that great achievement!!! :-)

Keith Olbermann is an idiot, LOL!!

2009-07-15T15:24:00.000-05:00

And no wonder his ratings are so low, bwahahaha!!

What a maroon!! This bonehead decides to break a news story (which he cut and pasted from Daily Kaos) attacking Free Republic.com (a conservative website where I've been participating for half a decade) as a racist, bigoted website...he decides to attack the founder/owner of the website, and GETS THE MAN'S NAME WRONG TWICE!!! on air, while showing a screen grab of the home page for FR, which has the founder's name on it several times! LOL!!! :-) So much for your 'research' (insert air quotes here) department, eh, Keithie?? :-)

Newsbusters is on this, and I'm hoping to see it on Drudge before too long.
MSNBC's Olbermann Twice Gets Free Republic Founder's Name Wrong And of course, we FReepers are having a field day as well: 'Jim Thompson' of Free Republic Is One of Keith Olbermann's Worst Persons In the World

Little hint, Keithie! It's not "Jim THOMPSON", LOL, it's "Jim ROBINSON"--not EVEN close!!! What a great journalist you are, NOT! :-)

Happy Birthday Times 2!!!

2009-07-11T22:52:00.000-05:00

Finished! The twins had their first real birthday party today and while Sarah had a pretty good time, Sam was pretty overwhelmed, cried a lot and his grandfather had to carry him to a quiet room to settle him down a few times. Overall, we had a lot of people attending, and they all seemed to have a great time eating pizza, chocolate cake and ice cream!! :-)

The bittersweet part of the day came around 5:30 am, when Nana (my MIL) got a phone call from India letting her know that her 94 year old mother had just died. :*( I was hoping that she'd live long enough to meet her great grandchildren someday, but that wasn't meant to be. I remembered a picture I'd taken in 1995 during our visit to India for DH's brother's wedding, and found it in one of our photo albums that I haven't gotten to scrap yet...found a picture frame for it and gave it to Nana. She started crying but seemed all right, and she found a place in the living room to display it, saying her mother would 'look down on all of us and bless us'. I just know that my babies wouldn't be here today if not for this woman I'd only met a few times, and I'm thankful that God arranged for someone halfway around the world to enable me to be a mom someday! :*)

Got lots of pictures from today and some video too--way too tired to upload anything, hopefully I can put the pics up from first haircuts and Locks of Love donations and this first birthday party sometime tomorrow afternoon, should be pretty quiet here!

Sam & Sarah's First Birthday!!! :*)

2009-07-09T23:56:00.000-05:00

I can hardly believe a whole YEAR has gone by, and now my babies--no, they aren't babies any more, but TODDLERS!!! WOW! :*) :*)

First I give God ALL the glory for blessing me not only with Sam and Sarah, but with their big sister Maya as well! Thank you, Jesus!! :*) :*) :*) I am so grateful for my wonderful blessings and I thank you a hundred times a day!! :*)

Today was their actual birthday (1 whole year ago today they were born!!! CRAZY!!!) but since most of the people we invited work, we decided to have the birthday party itself on Saturday. Since Sam and Sarah love Blue's Clues I thought that would be a good theme--unfortunately there's not much on the market nowadays for Blue! Still, I found a great deal on party supplies on Amazon.com, and I'm going to have a cake made at the local grocery store with a giant blue pawprint. Maya has some small plastic Blue's Clues character figurines, so we'll clean those up and stick them on the cake, viola! :-) Worked for Maya's second party, should work for the ~~babies'~~ TWINS/TODDLERS (gotta get used to saying that! :-) first birthday!

Today we had a mini-celebration with the grandparents and a small cake for Sam and Sarah. Sarah got a lovely gold chain from India from the grandparents, and a beautiful orange dress with lots of embroidery and flowery details (haven't taken pics yet, will do tomorrow). Sam also got a gold chain, plus a very handsome formal suit, jacket and all! Very nice! :-) They even gave Maya a few "Big Sister" gifts which was really nice of them to do!

This evening after the ~~babies~~ TWINS/TODDLERS had dinner, we had a little birthday cake for them. The grandparents were totally delighted at their reaction to the chocolate cake (took some hilarious pics, but haven't uploaded them yet) which was a BIG hit, LOL! :-) Fortunately everything cleaned up easily! Maya had a blast supervising and helping out where and when needed, she's the world's best big sister, I have to say! :-)

Tomorrow we'll be getting the house ready for the party on Saturday, Maya and I can't wait! The twins will LOVELOVELOVE it! :-)

Locks of Love, and Sam's First Haircut!

2009-07-07T22:42:00.001-05:00

Maya got her hair cut for the third time today, and for the THIRD time is donating it to a charity called Locks of Love which uses the hair to make wigs for children who have lost their own due to diseases like alopecia and cancer. We are soooooooo very proud of her for doing this! :*)

We originally were going to wait until Maya was done getting her hair washed, styled, and blow dried, but another stylist came in and said she could go ahead and take care of Sam's first haircut (!). He did great at first, then about 3/4 of the way through he started getting upset. Fortunately Miss Dixie was VERY good at cutting hair quickly, LOL! :-) Sam's grandfather was more upset afterward, but his grandmother was delighted you could actually see Sam's eyes without hair falling in them! :-) I think he's handsome either way myself, but I'm biased. ;-)

It's hard to believe that on Thursday, two days from now, the twins are going to be ONE YEAR OLD!!!! That is probably THE fastest year EVER in my life! :-) We're having a small party on Saturday with the Blue's Clues theme--they love that show, but since it's older I had a hard time finding party supplies. Found some on Amazon though, that'll have to do! I'll post before and after pics of both Sam and Maya tomorrow, I can't find the camera tonite!

America's Tea Party at Southfork Ranch

2009-07-05T00:14:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday, America!

2009-07-04T19:46:00.001-05:00

233 years old! May the USA be celebrating many more years of Liberty to come!
(Despite HolyO's administration trying to destroy all the Founding Fathers believed in!)

"An American Soldier"--God Bless Our Troops!!

2009-07-02T19:03:00.000-05:00

Kleenex Alert:

Killed in action the week before, the body of Staff Sergeant John C. Beale was returned to Falcon Field in Peachtree City, Georgia, just south of Atlanta, on June 11, 2009. The Henry County Police Department escorted the procession to the funeral home in McDonough, Georgia. A simple notice in local papers indicated the road route to be taken and the approximate time.

Nowadays one can be led to believe that America no longer respects Honor and that outside of the military, no one honors the sacrifices by members of the military. Be it known that there are many places in this land where people still recognize the courage and sacrifices of the men and women in uniform. Georgia remains one of those graceful places.

The link below is a short travelogue of that day’s remarkable and painful journey. Watch this film clip if you wish to have your faith in people restored.

http://blip.tv/play/AYGJ5h6YgmE

Tough to watch. Thank God for heroes like Sgt. Beale.

Eternal-September.org (used to be Motzarella)

2009-07-01T21:15:00.000-05:00

So out of the blue it seems AT&T decided to ixnay USENET in a few weeks--!%#$%$%%#&!!!!
>:-(

Been trying to switch everything over to a free newsgroup server called motzarella--and now *they're* changing over to eternal-september.org. Just now finished getting all the server settings correct--woohoo!! Seems to work really well!
So if you're using AT&T to read your newsgroups, give eternal-september a try! :-)

Amazing Ultrasound Technology!

2009-06-27T15:48:00.000-05:00

They can make 3D 'sculptures' from 3D ultrasounds! So cool, I wish it had been available when I was pregnant with Maya and the twins! :-)

"Cards for Heroes"

2009-06-25T21:33:00.000-05:00

For all you scrapbookers out there!

2009-06-23T17:06:00.000-05:00

Well, crap. Redux. :*(

2009-06-23T17:03:00.000-05:00

‘Jon & Kate’ Separate as Cameras Roll

Dang! What's with all the unexpected endings all of a sudden?!?

Well, crap.

2009-06-18T16:50:00.000-05:00

Primeval has been cancelled!! Wah!
I really like that show--I hope the fans protest enough in UK
and around the world to bring it back!

A chance to sit down

2009-06-12T01:40:00.000-05:00

Finally! It's been a crazy week! DH is out of town on business, Maya's had 2 summer camps (taekwondoe and soccer) and the babies and I have basically been living out of the van, LOL. :-)

Got to thinking that about this time last year, I had several important things happen: 1) my braces came off June 4, 2008! Wooot!! Since then I've had implant surgery and will have the final crown added in a few months...man, it's take forever, it seems like!

2) I was nearing the end of my pregnancy with the twins...on June 7th I had a scary bleeding episode that put me in the hospital overnight for observation--turned out to be nothing, THANK GOD! On June 8 I was released and I basically went straight to a baby shower a friend threw for me--talk about hectic! ;-)

3) Went to the 4th of July celebration at the park across the street from us, remember being tired and achy and BIG at the time, LOL.

5 days later Sam and Sarah were born. :*)

Got boatloads of pics of them, but that will have to wait until I have more time off, too tired to mess with right now!!

Awesome Rush Interview with Hannity

2009-06-07T18:10:00.000-05:00

Transcript and video here.

Aw...this is a three-hanky video!! :*)

2009-06-06T00:18:00.000-05:00

10 y/o Hannah thinks her military dad is in Iraq--he's not! :*)

Story here.

Welcome home, Air Force Master Sgt. Joseph Myers, and thank you for your service to your country! :*)

Downhill spiral begins

2009-06-05T10:07:00.001-05:00

America is finally waking up--YES!!!

First Terrorist Attack on American Soil since 9/11!!

2009-06-02T16:49:00.000-05:00

And it's all over the news, right? Right?! >:-(

The murder of abortionist/butcher George Tiller caused an almost immediate reaction from Obama--he called the murder 'heinous', and immediately ordered US MARSHALLS (!)
to protect abortion clinics!!!

Several hours later, 2 soldiers were standing outside a military recruitment office in Little Rock, Arkansas, when suddenly someone in a SUV drove up and shot them--one of the officers died, the other one is stable but still critical the last I heard.

STILL waiting for the man in the white house to offer his condolences to the family of the slain soldier (like he immediately did for Tiller the Baby Killer) and to hear him condemn Islamofascism!!

Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick....

Oh, wait. I guess HolyO is too busy preparing for his upcoming Middle East Apology Tour (MEAT) and he needs more practice bowing to the Saudi King--that must be why he doesn't have time to act like a REAL Commander in Chief!!

God bless our military and protect them from this fraud in the white
house!!

UPDATE: FInally starting to see the MSM run with this story. Here's an article from the Arkansas CW and they actually had the guts to print this!!--Police call his actions domestic terrorism. Knock me over with a feather!

Perfect!

2009-05-27T09:08:00.001-05:00

I figure Sonia will last about as long, as say, Harriet Miers! LOL!

Obama Smackdown, HooRah!!

2009-05-21T17:01:00.001-05:00

"In defense of the unborn..."

2009-05-12T11:12:00.001-05:00

May God bless the efforts of the students and others who are opposing HolyO's unholy visit to Notre Dame!

2009-05-11T22:12:00.000-05:00

Belated, unfortunately because our wireless service was yo-yoing yesterday! Hope every mom had a lovely day! I got some red roses and a poem from Maya! :-)

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!

2009-05-08T00:01:00.000-05:00

She knew and lied about it anyway! "In that or any other briefing…we were not, and I repeat, were not told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation techniques were used. What they did tell us is that they had some legislative counsel -- the Office of Legislative Counsel opinions that they could be used, but not that they would. And they further -- further, the point was that if and when they would be used, they would brief Congress at that time"--lies, lies, lies. She *knew*.

Bad SanFranGranNan!! Bad!! Hopefully she will be the first to fall in HolyO's white house of cards of corruption in Washington, D.C.!

National Day of Prayer

2009-05-07T08:58:00.000-05:00

...but NOT in the White House. He says he doesn't like to 'pray in public' yet he did for two or more years on the campaign trail, so I guess it was politically expedient then, but now that he's in charge, it's not necessary to keep up that pretense anymore?

So no reaching out to religious (and remember, this isn't the *CHRISTIAN* day of prayer! It is for all religions) voters, yet oddly enough, just a few days ago there was a highly publicized tribute to "Cinco de Quatro" in which he celebrated a Hispanic holiday--could it be because he's looking forward to the day when all the illegal immigrants from Mexico will become citizens who can/will vote for him in the next presidential election???

It appears that the person who is our president has officially turned his back on acknowledging God in public--this scares me for the future of my country! :*(

And BTW, for you liberals out there still suffering from BDS? ("Bush Derangement Syndrome") President Bush did NOT create the National Day of Prayer. Try again!

"Just Tax"

2009-04-29T02:41:00.000-05:00

Catchy tune, excellent message!

"100 DAYS, 100 MISTAKES"

2009-04-28T22:48:00.000-05:00

Palling around with dictator Hugo Chavez of Venezuela
Bowing (though the White House later denied it was a bow, despite video and pictures to the contrary) before the Saudi king--wonder if he would have kissed the king's ring too if he'd had a chance??

So little time, so many major gaffes!!!
Awesome New York Post article here.
Can't wait for HolyO's administration to be over and done with, so all the damage he is causing to America can be fixed before it's too late!!

RIP Nick Cutter

2009-04-28T10:09:00.000-05:00

Dang. :*(

$328,835, But Photoshop software is only a few hundred bucks?!

2009-04-28T08:36:00.001-05:00

UPDATE:
FAA Memo: Feds Knew NYC Flyover Would Cause Panic
Threatened Federal Sanctions Against NYPD, Secret Service, FBI & Mayor's Office If Secret Ever Got Out
Furious Obama Apologizes: "It Will Never Happen Again"

"Furious", my foot! >:-(
HolyO knew EXACTLY what was going on, he micromanages too much to have been 'clueless' about this whole operation!!

UPDATE II:

Happy Earth Day! Did you know...

2009-04-22T14:05:00.000-05:00

...it was founded by a murderer?!
Unicorn Killer

Backyard Adventure

2009-04-22T11:10:00.003-05:00

Took these pictures yesterday--spring is definitely here! My favorite is the closeup of the bee on the dandelion where you can clearly see the eyes and wings--just beautiful!

More Lies from Beltway Bob And HolyO!!!

2009-04-17T22:33:00.001-05:00

Beltway Bob=Robert Gibbs, the VOO (*Voice of Obama*) in the White House pressers.
Today he says, "

No plans for Obama meeting with Chavez: White House

Uh, huh.

SHAME SHAME SHAME on them!!

2009-04-16T08:53:00.000-05:00

Members of the very liberal MSM (main stream media) like Anderson Cooper, Keith Olberman, and Rachel Maddow have taken delight in replacing the phrases 'tea party' and 'tea partiers' with a DISGUSTING phrase that refers to a very graphic *** act--SHAME ON THEM.

Tolerant, they say they are? Puleeze!!!!! DISGUSTING is what they are! >:-(

2009-04-16T08:36:00.002-05:00

Maya commented as I took this picture,"Mom, we have to save that, or else the next thing you know it won't be there, it will be a flag with Obama's face on it!!!" Smart kid!
Listening to a speaker, who said, "IT STARTS TODAY!"
That would be me, a radical right wing protester, LOL, attending an historical event of great proportions! !
Sarah displays Maya's homemade sign as she thinks in disgust about all the future tax burdens that have been placed upon her and her siblings!

A short while later the whole place was full of grassroots protesters, who received unending horns honking in full agreement with the messages on their signs!
As noted by others reporting on their Tea Party events, notice that the grounds are spotless, not a piece of trash anywhere (paper or human)!

Just your standard radical, right wing extremist family.

Maya exercising her First Amendment Rights!

There were several dressed up people, but we missed out on taking a picture of the lady dressed like the Statue of Liberty!

His poster says it all!

This man was proudly waving Old Glory at the intersection--almost every passing car horn honked in approval!

What the protests are all about.

More people were arriving as we were leaving--I estimated about 200 or so while we were there, but the actual number count may have been higher after people got out of work!

God Bless America!!!

TEA PARTY USA!!!!

2009-04-16T08:36:00.001-05:00

I hadn't known my town was going to be having a Tea Party--I'd wanted to go to one but couldn't make the long drive way down to Dallas...imagine my delight when, after my daughter Maya's dance class we went to the bank and happened upon the Tea Party by the city hall/municipal complex! After grabbing some food at McD's for my daughter, we headed over to join the group. She was delighted as well (she's a bright girl, if I may say so myself!) and tore the back off a coloring book and made her own little sign to carry to the group. When we got there, I'd guess there was less than 40 people or so, but within an hour I believe there was at least 200 or so people there! We could only stay for about 45 minutes, but those minutes were so invigorating to walk around, meet others who were 'fighting the good fight' with their signs, and to hear an almost unending stream of car horns honking as they drove by--I almost cried several times because I was so glad to be there among REAL Americans, and because my daughter and twins and I got to participate in this grassroots protest against the obamanations going on in Washington!! Since I wasn't prepared for the Tea Party (my daughter was a bit disappointed she didn't get to make a 'real' sign) all I had was my cell phone camera. I took a boatload of pictures, and a few videos...unfortunately my dumb phone wasn't set properly (I only recently got it) and the pictures were saved to the handset and not the memory card, and it won't let me transfer ALL of the pictures at once, only one at a time. Still I wanted to share the few I did manage to get transferred tonite, and I'll try to finish the rest tomorrow.

This Tea Party really left us invigorated and motivated and stimulated to keep fighting against the evil that's in control of our country!! Don't Tread on Us, liberals! WE ARE FIGHTING BACK!!! THIS IS WHAT AMERICA IS REALLY ALL ABOUT--FREEDOM!!!

Surgery!

2009-04-09T01:05:00.001-05:00

Oops! Just realized I never updated about my surgeries!

Turns out I was able to have them after all. DH fully recovered from the pneumonia, thank God, and was able to go back to work last Monday (March 30th). I went in for the surgery on April 2nd. Actually instead of the triple surgery I was expecting (I misunderstood the coordinator when I asked about having my gall bladder removed) I only had the two, the hernia repair and the bladder repair. Everything went fine, no problems. Pretty sore the first few days, and Maya was delighted to count 5 small incisions (it was laprascopy surgery) afterward. There's really 7 incisions, but the 2 from the bladder repair appear to be superglued shut and not sutured.

Maya was soooooo sweet helping me get up and around by holding my elbow and letting me lean on her...that kid definitely has a touch of Florence Nightengale in her! :-)

Truth be told the bladder repair hasn't been painful AT ALL, I was really surprised at that! And it has been simply wonderful to not have ANY accidents whatsoever since last Thursday, yay!!!!

The hernia surgery, that one makes me feel like a Mack truck ran over me at times, especially when the pain meds wear off and I'm busy and forget to take the next batch--OW!! But it's bearable, and I've been able to get around pretty well since last Saturday or so, still wake up a bit stiff in the mornings because I don't get up during the night to take the pain meds. I started picking up the babies gingerly a few days ago without really having any problems, except when one of them gets rambunctious and kicks me in the tummy, again--OW!! :-( But I've been able to nurse them fine, when they want--sadly, it seems they are gradually weaning themselves, and they'll probably be totally weaned by their first birthday in July!

DH has been working from home to help me out with the babies, and yesterday the cleaning ladies were here (they come every other week and do the heavy duty cleaning) so I've been able to mostly take it easy. I've been working on making my Christmas cards (scrapbooking challenge) and I've gotten about 15 or so finished, yay me! :-) I'll scan the pics of them asap.

I go back for follow-up appointments with my 2 doctors next week, hopefully I'll be doing much better than I am now, each day seems to be a little easier than the day before! Thank you, God! :-)

My babies are 9 months old!!! :) :)

2009-04-09T00:23:00.001-05:00

Sarah and Sam touch grass for the first time, Sam got tickled right away!
One of my nicknames for Sam is "Baby Hulk" because he is so big and strong!
Sarah watches big sister flying a kite nearby.
Maya Grace just grows more and more beautiful with each passing year!
One of Dad's favorite duties--naptime!

Wow! I can't believe it! 9 months just flew by. :*)

I thank God for these precious littlies many times every day, every time I hear a giggle or see a smile or watch those little eyelids closed in sleep-- I have been so blessed by God with the twins and their big sister!! :*) Thank you, God, for answering my prayers for a family, even though it took a really long time, I'm so grateful I cry with joy every day!! :*)

(And now I'm a little sad because a very dear cyber-friend of mine, Cindi, who used to use that term 'littlies', died last week and went home to Jesus after dealing with illness for a very long time. So many prayers going up for her family and friends as Easter
approaches.) :*(

The Definition of A BIG FAT LIAR

2009-04-09T00:14:00.000-05:00

I always felt something shady about Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church who wrote "The Purpose Driven Life"--well, turns out for good reason.

A while back, this so-called 'man of God' ENDORSED Prop 8 out in California--the one the voters passed with a landslide saying marriage should ONLY be between a MAN and a WOMAN, no one or thing else! Which is as it should be.

Then suddenly, a few months later, this guy is all in love with Obama, having that wonderful 'share your religion' thing with the candidates (you remember, the one where, when asked about abortions, the HolyO said, "That's above my pay grade!"?) Warren was invited to pray at Obama's inauguration which caused a fury in itself, and now, he's gone on Larry King and LIED all over the place, and apologized to those poor widdle gay people he offended but really didn't because, "I NEVER ENDORSED PROP 8!!!", he claims!!

Brother, can you spare some hypocrisy?!?

"The 'WE THE PEOPLE' Stimulus Package"

2009-04-04T12:00:00.000-05:00

I LOVE IT!!!! YES!!!

MIni-update on us

2009-03-29T10:14:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been a crazy past few weeks here! I had my colonoscopy/endoscopy on the 11th of March, Maya was 'sick' for 3 days spiking a high fever but nothing else, then spring break started, DH got a 'cold' which turned into PNEUMONIA (oy!) so there went all our spring break plans--nothing big, but still, Maya wound up not leaving the house basically for several days because then *I* got sick--borderline pneumonia and an ear infection. The babies have so far avoided getting sick although they've had some allergies with this wacky weather, thank God!

I posted that I finally got my implant surgery (post placed in my jawbone and gum tissue built up) and recovery from that was relatively pain free and easy, again, thank God! Now I'm schedule for my hernia-bladder repair/gall bladder removal surgery this coming Thursday and I'm not sure if I'll have to cancel or not...my sister was supposed to come help for a week or so (along with DH, who still hasn't recovered completely from the pneumonia, he's weak as a kitten) but she's had to cancel due to previous plans to be out of state with her husband for a conference...I'm supermom, but I really don't think I can go from having laprascopy surgery to immediately back to my regular heavy duty schedule (lifting the babies, the 50 lb. stroller whenever we go anywhere, etc.) Maya's a big help, but there's no way an 8 y/o can do the job of an adult! So.....I'm not sure if I'll be able to get this surgery or not. I was actually looking forward to it, if you can believe that! Say a prayer for all of us, we could use them about now!

"Take the Limbaugh Challenge"

2009-03-29T10:12:00.000-05:00

Knock me over with a feather! A liberal newspaper actually printed this article double-dog daring liberals to actually listed to Rush Limbaugh's show instead of
swallowing the party line that he's anti-American, hates black people, yada, yada, yada. Wonder how many liberals will actually do that and find out the truth and have their eyes opened to what this 'president' is doing to America?