My silly girl!

Here are a few pictures of Elianna outside today. Bethanie didn't want her picture taken in just her panties so I don't have any of her, I'll strive for that tomorrow :) Enjoy! She was simply being silly in this picture, lol.
This is the same child who JUST YESTERDAY screamed when I tried to pull water over her head in the bath.

And this is my lovable, adorable, extremely easy going 4 month old niece who is cutting a tooth and not fussing about it for a minute :)

What is wrong with me?!?!?!?

Last night, as I sat here at the computer writing about how blessed I am and thinking about how truely thankful I am for those blessings Bethanie got up 3 or 4 times and came into the dining room. She was suppose to be in bed...asleep...obviously she wasn't. I yelled at her several times to go get back in bed, don't get up again. She wanted me to come lay with her, I kept telling her NO, not tonight. I was getting really frustrated with her. She doesn't usually act like that, it's Elianna I usually have the "getting out of bed" problem with. The thought kept coming to me, why is she doing this, why does she have to act this way when I am trying to blog, why does she have to bother me when I am trying to write about my blessings.......OMG, my biggest blessing and I am getting frustrated at her for BOTHERING me. What is my problem!?!?!?!?!? So I quickly finished my post, went and shed a few tears, then went and layed down with her. I told her how much I loved her, that I was terribly sorry for yelling at her. I told her how special she was to me, I hugged her and patted her back, and I watched her fall asleep. I then prayed like I said I was going to and I thanked God for the extra reminder of my blessings. And as I layed there in bed with her, trying to think of why she was so upset and having a hard time going to sleep. I remembered that she had watched Extreme Home Makeover (I was listening to it as I straightened up after dinner). The show last night was about a family who had taken in the sisters children after their mother was murdered. The one young girl was talking and crying about how she had been beside her father in the seat of the car during a wreck that took his life. Then when her mother and her boyfriend (who the children dearly loved) were murdered, this girl was the first to see them. I think, for Bethanie, letting her watch that was worse than watching a scary movie (which I do not allow). Movies are fake, THAT was a real person talking about the tragedy of loosing her parents. For a child I don't think there is much worse than the thought of loosing her Mommy or Daddy, not knowing what would happen to them if it were to happen, and think Bethanie may have been thinking about that last night as she tried to go to sleep :( I feel so bad that I didn't stop what I was doing and go be with her the first time she asked. Now I am off to go watch my two biggest blessings, my 2 princesses, sleep peacefully and thank God for them again.

I am blessed.....

And this week I have been reminded of that in a few ways. First on Wednesday night as we sat in church 2 ladies came in, one VERY pregnant, they were asking for money. The pastor asked them to come in, sit down, listen to the message, and then they would discuss what they were needing. They did! Most people refuse to come into church for the church service, I don't know if they are too embarrassed or if their conscience just won't let them (do they REALLY need money for food or did they go blow their money on drugs or alcohol). So as the ladies sat through church listening to the pastor's message about the trials we all go through, the one lady sat there and cried. So after services were over the pastor went to talk to the ladies. They were from out of town (about 90+ minutes away), they had just been to their mother's funeral and were trying to get back home. They were low on money, needed gas, and were hungry. The pastor gave them some money. They Thanked him a million times. The one also said she had just recently moved to where they are now living because her house had burned and she lost everything. Also that evening right as church was ending a man came in asking for money, saying he was hungry. I didn't hear his full story, but to help him without taking the chance of him using the money for cigarettes, drugs, or alcohol, he was told to go to the local grocery store, give the pastor's name and they would provide him with some food. Both of these instances reminded me that I am blessed that I have never had to beg for money because I am hungry. I also know that if extreme hard times were to hit (and they can for anyone, I know that) I have a family, church family, and close friends who would be willing to help us so hopefully we would never have to turn to strangers.

Two other stories I heard about just this weekend of people overdosing on drugs and dying. Both were family or friends of people I know. I am blessed that neither I, my DH, nor anyone in my immediate family, has ever had such an addiction that it goes so far as to take their life away. I hope and desperately pray that my children, nor any of my nieces or nephews, or any other friend or family member EVER become drug users.

And finally their is the boy who prayer was requested for him. He is a young boy, around 9 years old. He body recently was "attacked" by a viral infection that went to his heart. When he was finally doing better and regaining his strength little by little, a brain tumor was discovered. His prognosis is NOT good, his family has to make the decision for him to go through surgery and further treatment and get a year or so more time with him or just give meds in the attempt to reduce his pain and let him die. I am blessed that I have never been faced with such terrible decisions to make. I am blessed to have 2 healthy girls who are full of life and fun and bring so much joy to my life.

As I head to bed tonight I will pray for the two women that life will get easier for them. I will pray for the man that things won't be so hard for him either, that he can get his life on the right track. And for the friends and family of the two who overdosed, that they will find comfort in this difficult time and that these deaths can be used as a teaching tool to others who may be headed down the same path or to the children who will have choices to make in the near future. And also for the young boy and his family that they will be led to make the best decision and never have regrets which ever choice they make, and if it be God's will that he will perform a miracle on this young boy. I will also many, many thanks to God for all the blessings I have.

11 Years~ AWSOME baby!!

Saturday, June 14, Matt and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary. We had a nice day. My mom took the girls and kept them over night. Matt and I went out of town to eat at O'Charleys. Neither of us had ever been there but they have been having commercials on TV for there and what they showed looked SO Good so we decided to go. We get there and they are busy so we had to wait, it wasn't bad though only about 30-35 minutes. Then we are seated and our sever comes out and takes our drink order. Matt orders a drink and a water, I order a sweet tea. As she leaves the table she looks at Matt and says I'll get that right out for you BABY. WHAT?!?!?! I gave Matt a look and commented about her calling him baby. A few minutes later she comes out with his water and tells him it would be a minute on his adult drink. No mention what so ever about my tea. A few minutes later she comes back says she is still waiting on his drink but that she would go ahead and take our food order. I said...ummm, I never did get my tea. So she goes and gets it and instead of sweet tea...I got unsweet. At this point I was sure she was flirting with Matt. I think he got a kick out of the fact that I was acting on the side of jealousy (I am NOT a jealous person) we joked around about it a bit and got a few good laughs. We very quickly came to realize that she called EVERYONE baby, sweetie, honey, baby doll, babe, or some other affectionate name. It got a bit annoying but she was nice so we lived with it. Our appetizer had been cooked too long and didn't have much sauce on it but our main meal was DELICIOUS!!! I had planned to get desert but ate too much to have room so I got a piece of Ooey, Gooey, Carmel pie to take home with us. She gave it to us for free :) . And as we left Matt handed her the bill with the money in it, he told her the change was for her, she didn't even look to see how much but still said.....AWSOME BABY! lol. I told Matt I would be telling him that later that night. He laughed and later that night, just like I said, I did say it to him and we both got a good laugh out of it. We had a really good time, it's been so long since just the two of us have went out alone or even just spent time to gether without the kids. So to sum it up, it was..... AWSOME BABY!

NOT a good day!

A couple weeks ago my girls came in the house all excited because "we found BABY KITTIES". Sure enough one of the stray cats that had been staying at our house had had kittens. I don't know if the mother cat moved the kittens or if they had been there all along but the kitten were in the corner of our carport inside DH's extra 4 wheeler tires. When they found the kittens they were big enough to walk around and we even fed them that night. I figured they were at least 4 weeks old. The mother cat, who we never did give a name to, is a VERY scared acting cat. It will act like it wants to be friendly and let you pet it UNTIL you get close to her then she jumps and runs off as fast as she possibly can. I've never touched her and she has been here for a while. So when the kittens were discovered, I expected them to be the same way. But I was pleasantly surprised, they LOVED the kids. All the kittens were a tan color except one. The "special" one was gray with some white stripes. This kitten was the most pleasant little kitten I had seen in a very long time and the girls, especially Elianna, absolutely adored it. Elianna called the kitten her baby, she cradled it, wrapped it in a blanket, was always carrying it around. She would put it in the doll stroller or the wagon and push it around. And the kitten acted like it LOVED it. I so wish I had taken pictures of the two of them together. As soon as that kitten would hear the girls come outside, here it would come running and meowing for them (most of the cats run when they see the kids coming, lol). Even when I would be babysitting and all the kids would be outside playing (I wouldn't let the kids play with the kittens) this kitten would not stay away, it just loved being by the kids ;D Well this morning, as we were leaving for church, I sent the girls out to get in the van while I gathered the rest of our stuff. We were running late so when I went out I hopped in and started backing up. When I turned around I realized I had ran over a kitten....THAT kitten....the special one....Elianna's baby. It must have followed the girls out when they went to the van. My heart just sank when I realized what I had done. At first I was aggravated at the kitten for being under the van. I didn't want to upset the girls so I just pulled out of the driveway. Well I didn't make it very far, 2 housed down the road and I started bawling my eyes out. By time I got to the stop sign I was crying so hard I had to just stop. I knew I had to tell the girls what was wrong. So stopped there at the stop sign, still bawling, I told them how sorry I was and what I had done. I don't think they truly understood, they didn't seem upset about it. Bethanie I think understands now after coming home and burying the kitten in the back yard. But Elianna, I know she doesn't fully understand. I had sent the girls in the house while I put the kitten in a little box and had a bag around it (there was blood and I didn't want them to see it). Elianna kept asking to see the kitten, at first I said no but then decided it was for the best. Elianna saw the bag and told Bethanie that I put the bag in there to keep the baby kitten "comfable". They seemed sad while we were burying it but other than that have been fine. No tears from them, me on the other hand fill up with tears every time I think about it. It was my fault, I should have been more careful.

We had already dealt with loosing some other kittens this past week. Another cat, who until the day it had kittens we thought was a boy, it never looked a bit pregnant at all, had 4 kittens. Two were born dead, the other 2 were REALLY small and died shortly after. My sister mentioned that they were probably premature. Well for me that opens a whole new can of worms for me...as nutty and crazy as this sounds I felt a strange connection with them because they were preemies. I was really sad that the two did not make it :( I guess being a preemie mom, I am just drawn to anything preemie.

Now I am just hoping that the rest of this week is a better week. Me and the girls are headed to Girl Scout Day camp, we are hoping for and expecting a fun filled week.