There was that one devistating time that my husband dared to ask me the infamous question of, “So what again did you do all day?” With that I huffed and puffed and nearly went into a 3 year old fit. I figured I would show him. I left town for a weekend with my friend. We went to a scrapbooking convention. I gave him specific instructions that I wanted to house help up, no big projects because that would take away from the quality play time with the kiddos. Also HG was in school so I wanted to make sure that he did the whole school thing, and all of the extra activities that she had. I kissed my girl, winked at HH and walked away to a week full of luxurious hot tubbing, crafty craftmaking and endless ramblings of women who had also left their children. “AAHHH this is the life,” I thought to myself while eating a 5 course gourmet dinner. I decided to call home. The phone call went fine. I was a little disappointed, I must admit, he had not experienced any hiccups.
The week flew by with being up until 2 am and getting up at noon. Towards the middle of the week I started waking up at night listening for my girl. I found myself sleep walking looking for her. I would reach over at night to cuddle up to HH and would fall off the other side of the bed. I was all confused. I decided to go home a day early to suprise them. I was a mess. Even though the pampering was nice I missed the luxury of my own home. (ok not so luxurious but when you miss something so much you remember it in a grandios way)
I got home around 10 in the evening. I was greeted at the door by the barking dog. No one stirred. The house was an absolute pit. The living room was chucked full of toys, the dishes were somewhat done. The trash was heaped over, and the house had a distinct odor of diaper….ew. I went downstairs to find HH curled up with HG with her head on his chest. I went over to kiss both of them. He woke up. I reached for our child and held her close for a moment and went to put her in her bed. “Why did you not put her to bed?” “She finally went to sleep. She must have gas or just plain miss her mommy because she would not sleep!” He looked and smelled like he had not taken a shower in a few days. “WOE, did you shower?” “NO! Every time I got in the shower she woke up. I could not shower knowing she was out there just screaming or worse yet walking in and seeing me!!” I giggled at his shyness. “You’re home early.” I explained that that lap of luxury was not in a pampering week long fiesta of pictures that I missed everyone too much. He explained that he was glad to have me home and wondered how I did not go gray. I then let him in on the secret….hair dye.
Since that point in time he has never asked what I did. He experienced it first hand. I on the other hand learned that my home and my family no matter how dirty or frustrating it was was a 5 star place in comparison to a life without them.

In the world of crazy I would be the queen, especially this week. In reflection there was a lot of fun mixed with a ton of chaos.
We had out of town guests this week. It was nice to see them. We had not seen them in 5 years. When they were here the husband was wife were each 130 pounds over weight. When he came up to me to hug me I did not recognize him. He had lost 130 pounds. I was shocked and amazed. What a change for their lives. She had lost some but had recently had a baby. That will eventually come off.
In the meantime we moved an aquaitance but she is becomming a friend move into our guest room. Being that she is not a guest but rather living here I don’t know what to call it except a friend moving in. I must admit it is a pleasure to have such a nice spirit here. She is indeed a joy to have. How did I get so blessed? Graduate school is a huge bite to take off, but she is doing so with grace. This is her last year!!
So between guests and no guest room it ended up that the guests stayed in our room and we were on a blow up air matress in HB’s room. OY VEY. Needless to say I did not sleep well and am grateful to have my fluffy bed back all to myself. Ok I’ll only share with HH.
So tell me about your week.

“Go Mommy! I will be ok. You don’t haf to worry. See I have toys to play with and my snack. You did pack me the cake, huh?” As I assured him that I had indeed packed a piece of yummy cake for his treat after he ate his lunch I swallowed the lump that was in my throat. My baby is growing up.
These phases of life sometimes catch me by surprise. It was only yesterday HG was born and now she is blossoming into a beautiful young lady of 10 and starting 5th grade. It was only yesterday HB was born. It was only yesterday I muttered a small complaint that I had no time to myself yet as I sit here typing away the house feels empty without their chattering. According to HB he got out of diapers like 15 years ago and he learned to walk 2 weeks ago. His concept of time has not a care in the world.
This new phase of having all children in school is a difficult one to get use to. I suppose in a week or so I will have filled up the time and then I will wonder what happened to my day. But for today I am quietly going about my work. I keep looking at the clock to see how much time has passed. Only a few minutes or in HB’s world a few days.

HH and I met in high school when he started dating my friend. She thought he was nice and all but he was not her type. He was not my type either for that matter. At least that was what I thought.
I left him in the dust when I graduated and went to seek the adventure they call college. Went to college one year and decided that I was not ready for anything but the fast lane. I joined a band and traveled a bit.
Out of the blue one day I decided to phone up HH to see what he was up to. He had moved to Florida and joined the military. His sister gave me his number and I gave him a jingle. That was the beginning of a friendship that bloomed into love.
After 18 years of being together I feel like I should be bored of him by now. All of these years later I still like him. Why? Sometimes I do wonder but not today. I know that we chose each other and said, “I do” 13 years ago today.
Happy Anniversary Love

Ok so I’ve not been a good blogger. I have been enthralled by a new book that I was not able to put down. Ok to be truthful I read it through two times. I normally do not do that the first time around but I did not want to miss a thing. This book was totally out of what I normally read. I generally gravitate towards the love stories that are based in the old west. The qwest of the frontier woman…etc is right up my alley. I love them. This was different. I was given this book as a gift and now I am a little bit miffed. I will now have to purchase the next book in the series.
The book is called “The Negotiator” and it is written by Dee Henderson. It is about a woman named Kate O’Malley who is a hostage negotiator. She gets into the thick of things. Coming from her background she learned to be calm and collect in the most terrifying situations. The underlying problems are that she was terribly abused as a child and put into an orphanage. At this orphanage she met other children like her. When they all got out of the home they became their own family and changed their last names to O’Malley. The interesting part is that each of them go on to do something beyond the orphanage. Kate is a hostage negotiator, Marcus is a “guardian, Jack is a fireman…etc…etc.
As far as this book goes it has a complete tie to her past. Kate was called into a hold up situation where a FBI investigator, Dave Richman that just happened to be in the bank at the time. There she finds a confidant and a friend in Dave. That little fact is helpful when a bomb threat is called in the bomber refers to her by name. As she later discovers it takes her back to a very dark time before she went to the orphanage. OOOHHH it was good good good.
There’s so much to this book that I can not begin to write all of the facts that I found facinating. It is a book with a Christian influence that is the thread that ties the book together.
In a big way I am grateful that my friend thought I would enjoy this book. On the other hand….NOW I’M GOING TO HAVE TO BUY THE NEXT ONE! AAAAAGGGHHH.

When I was a kid I was obsessed with brushing my teeth. I did it like 4 times a day at the minimum. I would watch my parents brush and would be so jealous. I wanted to brush and get that foamy all over frothing look. When my mother brushed she looked like a rabid dog. I wanted to be just like her.
No one ever explained that I could look the same way if I brushed and just added more toothpaste but that would have been TOO easy. Nope it took me until I was 11 to figure out the secret of rabid mouth. I never claimed to be a brilliant child.