Why I love Football

So I am sitting here watching football and they keep running the "Why I Love Football" commercials and it made me think about why I love football.

See, I used to loathe football. I hated it with a passion. I hated it because my Mother loved it. She watched all the games and she yelled, screamed, and I think even threw things. She was passionate about the game. She loved College and NFL football, she knew all the players. She would follow her favorite college players NFL careers with glee. She hated Notre Dame because back in the stone age they "cheated" LSU out of a bowl game. One of her prized possessions was a Les Miles signed LSU football. She was a FAN.

I hated all that yelling, all that passion. My Dad used to joke that he had to go stand in the front yard during games so the neighbors would know he wasn't beating her, she was THAT loud. I would always find something else to do far far away. It was like that for years.

Then I met Mojo. He loves football, but he loves me more. I'm pretty sure that he did not watch more than two or three games the first year we were together. That, my friends, is love! Then I felt bad and he would watch the games and I would read a book. Then somewhere along the way I started watching, and enjoying the games. I would talk them over with my Mom the next day. We would watch them together and yell at the TV together, both loud, both passionate, I think I may have even thrown something.

My Mom and I were pretty tight. She was one of my best friends. She loved Mojo too, and I overheard her once telling him thank you for getting me to love football!

Then she got sick.

Football was the only thing that calmed her and soothed her so she could sleep during the last weeks of her life. She wasn't awake and aware very often and didn't know who I was or where she was most of the time when she was. She would get agitated because of this and watching reruns of football games on the NFL channel calmed her down, made her feel safe and happy. If she got restless in her sleep all I had to do was put on football and she soothed right back down into peaceful sleep. And believe me, with the amount of pain she was in peaceful sleep was a huge blessing.

So why do I love football?
I love football because it is a connection to my Mother, who I still miss every single day of my life. I love football because I can feel her watching with me. I love football because the last crop of college players she loved are just now starting in the NFL and I can follow them for her (Honey Badger, I'm looking at you). When we watch as a family I can feel her happiness in the room all around us. I love football because Mojo and I are passing the love of football on to our three girls and I KNOW that makes my mom happy.

School Morning Blues

Why is it that by the time I get all three girls on the bus in the morning I feel like I have gone three rounds with Mike Tyson? This just can not be right! It is less than two hours from when they wake up to when the last one gets on the bus and I am exhausted and ready for a nap.

Here is a typical morning at my house...

6:00 a.m. - Alarm goes off, jump out of bed and shut it off before it wakes Mojo. Glance back at bed, sigh, climb back in.

6:10 Jump out of bed in a panic, grab robe try to shut the door silently so it doesn't  make the slightest tiny noise and wake up Mojo. (Which is totally wishful thinking as my leap out of bed has usually jounced him awake anyway) Head to kitchen, start breakfast.

6:20 -6:30 Let the big girls know what time it is / that breakfast is ready. Get snarled at in response.

6:30 Wake up Littlesest as gently as I can if she is not already awake. Let her know breakfast is ready.

6:40 Remind Twinkies that breakfast is getting cold, get snarled at in response.

6:45ish Make sure everyone has everything they need for breakfast, run to room to get "dressed" for the bus stop. Get snarled at on the way.
Open door as quietly as humanly possible, creep around room and bathroom trying not to make the slightest sound (this is not even remotely possible for me, and if you know me at all you are laughing right now). Slap on some clothes and shove my hair in a ponytail, run a toothbrush over my teeth because this year we share the bus stop.

6:50 leave room again trying to shut door as silently as possible because the slightest click is heard as a BANG apparently.

6:51 check if Twinkies are ready to leave for bus (we leave EVERY DAY at 6:55, EVERY DAY this is a total shock!) Get snarled at while girls fly around gathering things, putting on socks and shoes, shoving things in my face to sign and telling me they need a 12 ounce can of soda for class today!

6:55 - 56 Somehow we manage to leave on time for bus. I am still not sure how that happens. Walk the block to the bus stop, get ignored by children but don't really care. Make chit-chat with the other mothers getting ignored by their children.

At some point the bus shows up and both girls come over for a hug and kiss before getting on the bus. This completely makes up for all the snarling! And the ignoring!  Because they don't care who sees them hugging their mom! Yea me! I head back for the hardest part of the day.

7:05 Turn off TV. Herd littlest to her room to get dressed. We have 30 minutes to put on a uniform, socks, shoes, get backpack and snack and if we made it the night before , lunch. Lots of time. Piece of cake because we have picked out the uniform we want to wear the night before.

7:15 Have tried on every pair of underwear in the drawer, none of which "feel right" Littlest is in tears because the only pair she wants to wear are the ones she wore yesterday and they are still in the laundry and "why didn't you wash them after I went to bed last night Mommy?"

7:20 Have settled on undies after being threatened with "I am going to get your Father!" Now crying because the shorts that go under the uniform jumper she picked out and tried on yesterday "don't feel right!"  "okay lets try another pair" "but I want to wear REEEEEDDDDD ones" "those are the only red ones we have." "They don't feel right!" " okay you don't have to wear those, lets try a different pair." " I want to wear RED ones!" "Those are the only red ones we have." "They don't feel right!" Wash, rinse, repeat....

7:30 Tears, mine, hers...

7:35 "You are going to miss the bus if you don't put on your socks and shoes RIGHT NOW!!!!" "But they have a bump!" "You have tried on every sock in the drawer, put some on NOW!!!!!"

7:40 "Wait! I forgot my snack!" SIGH "Well go grab something out of the snack bin" "I don't know what I want? what can I have?" "Any thing in the snack bin" "I don't want any of that, what can I have?" "Anything in the snack bin." "I don't want any if that, what can I have?"... Wash, Rinse, Repeat (Admittedly, this is my own fault because I forgot to have her pick it out the night before)

7:45 Exit the house in tears, hers, mine.

Waiting for the bus...

"Mom I need a tissue."
"Okay what pocket are they in?"
"I don't have any."
"I gave you a travel pack to keep in your bag last week."
"I took them out"
"Well if we go back in to get a tissue we might miss the bus, you will have to wait."
"I need a tissue."
"I don't have one."
"But, I need a tissue."
"Do you want to miss the bus?"
"No"
"Okay then."
"But, I need a tissue."
"I don't have one"
"But I need a tissue!"
"Honey, I don't have a tissue, maybe the bus driver will have one."
"But I need a tissue."
Wash, Rinse, Repeat until the bus finally, after about thirty years, arrives.

Collapse on lawn.

Adventures in Grocery Shopping

So today I had to change all my plans of watching tacky reality TV while I washed and folded the mountains of laundry my thoughtless family made over the weekend. Instead I had to do the weekly shop, as tomorrow is Mojo's birthday and he changed his mind about having a "cake". I would so put that word in air quotes if I could! He wants a BRAN "CAKE"!!!! A bran cake???? ugh. How in the world could I be married to someone who wants a bran cake for his birthday? That is just sauteed in wrong sauce.

Anyhoo, I thought that since I had to go to the store and get the wheat germ and other "yummy" ingredients for the "cake" I would just go ahead get the weekly shop over with.

What is up with you folks at the grocery store. Why do you feel the need to totally stick your whole head in my buggy to better see what I have put in it Nosey McNoesy-pants???

 I mean really, this happened more than once. So the third time, I "accidentally" ran into the offending party. She was so busy sticking her head in my buggy that she forgot to turn her buggy. I don't know, maybe it was the wheat germ? Or the golden raisins? Whatever, mind your own business! I think I might just start putting weird random stuff in my buggy. Like, layer the whole bottom with mouse traps, or five huge bottles of vodka and a tarp.

Also what is up with the grumpy old men? Every one of them was grocery shopping today and they all had to get in my way and grump at me.

On a side note, I do frequently have"accidental" collisions at the grocery. What?!?! If you don't want to get run over, don't leave your buggy in the middle of the aisle where I can't get around it! and especially don't leave your stinkin' buggy blocking the aisle and then LEAVE the aisle. You will come back and there will be something missing from your cart, and it will be moved. You have been warned!

Oh and sorry for all the "". It has just been that kind of day.

Poor Sick Babies

Last week Middlest woke up with a fever and a sore throat. She missed three days of school and the fever and sore throat went away and left behind a horrible croupy cough. She sounded like a barking seal y'all! Nothing touched that cough, not Vicks vapo rub, not cough drops, not any kind of cough syrup, not even Dearie's tried and true honey and whiskey remedy (that hot mess ALWAYS works!). Sigh.

I took her to the Doc on Monday and begged him to fix her.  He said that is was going around and wrote her a bunch of prescriptions: antibiotic, light steroid, codeine cough syrup, and breathing treatment meds, BUT he said she could go back to school. . Then just as the appointment was wrapping up he said "I bet another pretty young lady is going to feeling poorly pretty soon too." "WHAAAATTTTT" And sure enough, Oldest came home from school with a sore throat and fever. Bigger sigh. I got her on the antibiotic PDQ, hoping to avoid the barking seal cough, and she has been home from school ever since.  She is cuddled up on the chesterfield watching a documentary on the Galapagos Islands and playing with her iPad as I type this.

It is no fun for them to be sick though. They don't like to stay home without the other, and they really hate going to school alone. (In case I haven't said it before, kids are weird and twins are weirder!) But is no fun for me either. I have to keep all this medicine straight. Which isn't made any easier by instructions like " give three pills twice a day for the first two days and then two pills twice a day for three days, and then spin around four times and hop on one foot.".

 

 

 

I am praying the Littlest will stay healthy and that Oldest can go back to school tomorrow.

 

Oh, and y'all... that MucinexDM is the bombdiggity! But only take it in the morning cause you can't take it with the liquid blue heaven in a bottle at night.

 



 



A Fortunate Life...REALLY!

So the past two years have been really rocky for me and my family. Those who follow my meanderings on here know that my Mom died in 2011 after a hard fought battle with lung cancer. Those who know me IRL know that in 2012 my Father died as well. I got a year and a week with him before he went to be with my Mom. He was not sick, it was very sudden and unexpected. It was also very difficult to deal with.

He died at his fishing "camp" and he had been out with his friends fishing the day he died. He died on July 19, but he was found on the 20th so that is the date in his death certificate. That bugs me no end.

I am finding it very hard to be an "orphan". I know that a 40ish mother of three can't really be called an orphan, but that is what I feel like. It is very easy to get bogged down with feeling sorry for myself. I am the last one standing. Of my Nuclear Family, Dad, Mom, Brother, Me... I am the only one left alive.

I have spent the last half of 2012 fighting that feeling. I stopped doing many of the things I enjoyed and that I used to get through my Mom's death. I stopped writing here, I stopped taking pictures for my 365 project, I stopped baking and crafting. I stopped volunteering in the girls schools, I even mostly stopped taking care of the house. It was all I could do to take care of my family and myself.

Then a day or so ago I came back and looked at this blog. I snorted and mumbled, Fortunate Life, my FOOT! Then I looked up at Mojo and the girls, I looked around my beautiful home and thought of my friends and loved ones who have been through so much with me and stuck by me over the last two years. I looked at Big Man and thought about how he loves me with all of his doggy heart, and I realized that yes I AM fortunate. So much more fortunate than I really deserve.

And so 2013 is going to be a year of awareness for me. A year of really feeling how very very fortunate I really am. A year of healing and reaching out to show how much I love those close to me. A year of being thankful for all the blessings that are in my life.  And I hope you come along for the journey with me.

Sofa Drama

So Mojo and I have been shopping for a new sofa for about two years. Not diligently or hard-core, but looking around and shopping none the less. It is difficult because out tastes are so different. I like mixy matchy textured sofas and he likes sleek modern leather.

This is what I like...



This is what Mojo likes...

So very different styles. We looked and looked and argued and then we only had a love seat and two chairs in the den and five people trying to sit down. So we kept looking and we finally, about two or three months ago found this...

We both loved it so we bought it. Paid for it and then waited for it to be delivered. After about a month the sales clerk called and our sofa had been discontinued and we could not have it! WHAT??? So she wanted to know did I want the floor model? I asked her how much the floor model was and she was surprised, I guess she thought I should pay full price for  it?  Anyway she had to "talk to her manager" who offered us a whole THIRTY dollars off our price. Because we had bought the sofa at ten percent off in the first place. I said no. We went back and forth and I finally just said that I wasn't paying that much for what was essentially a used sofa.

Walking around their showroom I saw kids jumping on the furniture. People lounging with open drinks on the furniture and doing God knows what else. So no, I wasn't paying the same price for a new one as for the floor model.

Later that day the Sales Manager called and made me another offer, I agreed and told her that we would come in the next day and look over the sofa and if it was in good shape we would take in home that day.

The next day, I really have no idea WHAT happened on the interstate but a 30min trip took 2 hours! We get there and everybody runs for the bathrooms! The we go to check out the floor model, only it is gone. I told Mojo that maybe because it was discontinued they had moved it to the back. But, NO! They SOLD IT!!!! They sold the sofa we had ALREADY PAID FOR!!!!

I could not help it, I burst into laughter. I mean REALLY?????? REALLY??????

So they tell us if we choose another sofa THAT day they will give us a "good Deal".
So we wandered around for 2 hours and finally choose this one...

Notice the cushions? Yeah, they came from the first sofa! The store was selling them! Someone did not get all the cushions with their sofa I guess! Anyway, Mojo being the wheeler dealer that he is got them for us for FREE! They were 30 dollars each! On top of the "good deal" on the sofa!

So we waited for THIS one. And it finally arrived and I LOVED it. It looks even better than I thought it would in the room! But then I noticed THIS...

OH NO!!! So I call them and send over this very picture and wait three days. AND they are sending us a new new new sofa! I thought it would be more difficult. So fingers crossed we will finally finally get a sofa!!!!

Who know that buying a sofa would be such a hassle???

100 year celebration

of Girl Scouting.

That's where we spent our day on Saturday.

Our council had a celebration fair and carnival and we went and volunteered at the memorabilia booth and the crafts and games booth.

We earned the original design first aid patch...

We stood in line for rides...

   

We learned about scouting in different countries...

We had a good time and we all got our first sunburns of the season!

Jennifer Thursday!

Mike Doughty - 27 Jennifers!
Enjoy

Sittin' on the dock of the bay

Not really. I AM sitting at my breakfast bar wasting time. 'Cause I so don't want to clean the kitchen. I need to though, so I will get to it soon. 

I am also waiting for Mojo. {That sounds like a movie.} He has been gone for the past two nights on business. I hate it. The kids hate it. The dog hates it. He hates it. But we have to do it. Thankfully it doesn't happen very often at all. He used to have to do ALOT of travelling and I really really hated it. I got used to it though. I figured out how to sleep without him, but I hated it. Now I am out of the habit and usually wind up sitting up in bed all night imagining that the noises I hear are people breaking into the house to kill me and leave my children motherless.

This time I got smart and made the dog sleep in the room with me. He likes to sleep in his own bed at night and only come sleep in our bed in the mornings. He really didn't want to sleep in my room so on the second night he slept in the smack middle of the bed and made me sleep on the edge.  I could just imagine what he was thinking.

"Geez Mom, grow up! What exactly do you think I'M gonna do? Humph, well I'll sleep here BUT you won't like it! I'm sleeping right here in the middle! YOU sleep on the edge! I don't wanna be in here anyway! You closed the door most of the way and now I can't get out and get a drink of water or eat! You know I always eat after you go to bed. Man, I wish Dad would come home. Stupid Mom!"

He weighs 170 pounds! So I did not get alot of sleep last night anyway. But he got his revenge. Tonight Mojo comes home! So everyone can sleep where they belong, and the dog can get over being mad at me.

Until next time :)

Jennifer Thursday

It's BACK!

I know you've missed it.

Jennifer Thursday, where I post a link to a Jennifer song!

Here Ya go...

Nina Simone - Pirate Jenny

New Traditions

Every year on the last day of school I attack the girls as they get off the bus. And the annual "Last day of School Water Balloon Fight" commences.  This year as the Christmas holidays loomed toward me, I cast around looking for things to lighten me up and make me enjoy the Hols. I thought about the water balloon fight and about the fact that it was winter. I thought about the fact that the big girls don't catch the bus in out front yard anymore but down the street on someone else's corner.

I remembered something I saw on Pintrest. I didn't pin it at the time because I went back and looked for it for this post and could not find it. Anyway... it was a snowball fight in a can! I thought that is perfect. I can hide it behind the front door and bomb them when they walk in! So I went out and bought a Christmas tin shaped like a paint can and some white yarn. I spent one evening making big white Pompoms. I put it all together and hid it from my children.

And then I waited for the big day.


Only....

I forgot all about it.

Yep! I got sick with an inner ear imbalance caused by a prescription medicine and spent some time feeling dizzy and sick and throwing up and sleeping for days. And when the new medicine started to work and I felt a little better and finally like I could maybe drive again, Break was upon me and I forgot all about it in the frantic rush to catch up with all that I hadn't been able to do while living the worst hangover known to man. { and can I just say that it was HORRIBLE! and horribly unfair that I felt that way and I don't even drink that much! Like hardly ever! Not counting the company Christmas party, which is only once a year anyway!}

Nope, I had hidden the can in a tote filled to the brim with hidden presents and did not find it until Christmas eve. Doh!

So I decided that we would use it on New Years Eve! And that is what we did and the kids loved it. They want to do it every year now. so It is our new tradition. We don't have many for New Years. Really only the food stuff and the smashing of the gingerbread house. THAT is a subject for another post!

Where's Reggie

Meet Reginald Zelf the Christmas Elf. Reggie for short.
He has been very busy this Christmas season!

The most wonderful time of year....Maybe, sorta, not always

I set myself up. I really really did. I let my optimism get the better of me, or maybe it was wishful thinking. Or just total willful blindness.

I thought "Oh, this is great. Christmas. My mom hated Christmas, I can do this holiday, no problem! She was never here for the decorating or the movie watching or the baking or anything. Christmas eve and morning will be hard, but the rest of it? Piece. Of. Cake."

I know, I know. I can hear you shaking your heads from here. I own waterfront property on the river "Denial"!

So, I go bounding upstairs to the Christmas attic. (does it tell you anything, the fact that I have an attic dedicated to Christmas?) I pull out the first bin and in it, right on top, is this...

My mom made it when my brother and I were little. She couldn't get rid of it when she got rid of her other Christmas decorations after my brother died, but she couldn't keep it either, so it came to live with me years ago.
It has hung in pride of place over all my Christmases ever since.

The next things were these...

Mom gave me one and Mojo the other the year we moved into this house, one for each twin to inherit one day.
Then when I was digging around looking for my red and white ball ornaments (which I still haven't found) I ran into the nativity scene.

My dad made the manger from an apple crate the first year they were married and my mom had the Fontanini Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus. Only she got rid of all the figures and only kept the manger. I found it in the attic and adopted it and it has been mine ever since. Only all the figures have been replaced by my mom, who gives us a new piece every year. All Fontanini. It now takes up the whole top of the buffet in the den. It is turning in to a small town, with a bakery and palm trees and lots of animals. Only I am not sure it I can stand to put it out this year. The Nativity was the only thing she put out each year. She bought several to replace the family one because she just couldn't put it out any more after my brother died. We used to play with the figures and animals and spend hours with it. I understand why she put it aside. I am blown away realizing what she did for me in letting me start it up again. In giving me pieces for it each year. She wanted her grandgirls to have memories or it and take pieces of it to start their own collections in time.

I really, really want to put it out this year, I just don't know if I can.

I am also now terrified of the land mine that was once the Christmas attic. I had no idea how much my mom is interwoven in my Christmases. I have no idea how I am going to keep diving in and getting sucker punched. But I have kids who I love more than life itself.  They deserve to have the very best Christmas I can give them. So into the breach I go.

Wish me luck.

Peppermint Popcorn - or Pinterest Tuesday

Okay, so like so many of us I have gotten addicted to Pinterest. I finally got tired of just pinning things several months ago and started to actually try some of the things I have pinned.

I also have been having trouble finding inspiration and motivation to post on here (as you can tell) so this evening as I was making the peppermint popcorn that I found through Pinterest I decided to make it a feature.

This particular pin came from Skip to my Lou , and may I say that I have fallen in love with this blog and have become a follower. So many many wonderful ideas!

So I am not going to give a step by step, 'cause she does that wonderfully well. I'm just gonna say that this stuff is YUMMY, and then go stuff my face!

Becoming better, not bitter

I have been doing a lot of thinking about the people in my life lately. I have so many many people who love me and support me and who are there for me though thick and thin. Even with their own busy lives and hard times they are always there to lend a hand or a shoulder or cheer me on.
So why am I so focused on the ones who have let me down? Why do I brood upon the people in my life who have taken far more than they have given? Why do I feel the urge to call them out? What I really want to do is to just get on with my life and honor those who are with me and just let go of the others. The ones who talk and don't listen, who never call to check on you but are always there when THEY need a sympathetic ear or shoulder. The ones who are nowhere to be found when you hit hard times. The ones who think an obligatory pat on the shoulder, short resentful phone call, or some other duty driven sign of attention is all they need to do.

I know it is because I want them to realize how very very hurtful their behavior is. I want them to know that they aren't the wonderful folks they think they are. Mostly these are the ones who showed up for my Mom's funeral or just gave me a quick call and then faded into the ether. Or even worse, the "family" I still haven't heard a word from three months after my Mothers death.
I keep seeing these "life quotes" you know the ones, "When people show you who they are believe them." and "sometimes you just need to distance yourself from people. If they care they'll notice and if they don't, you know where you stand." you know those ones. It has me thinking that rather than worry about what other people "show me" (because they think they are just marvelous), I want to worry about what I show other people. I want to be the type of person I expect other people to be, and just let go of the ones who aren't there and can't be bothered. I don't have them in my life in any meaningful way anyway so I really don't need to worry about their feelings or expectations now.  I can't change people who see their own navel as the center of the universe, I can only make sure that MY OWN navel does not become the center of mine.

Back in the groove

So I've been home for about a month and a half.  I am still struggling to get back in the groove and slide smoothly through the days. I am having trouble with motivation and remembering things. I hate forgetting meetings and lunches and when to put out the recycling.

I have days when I do lots of things and days when I do nothing.  It is hard not to compare this grieving period with the one after my brother died.  Then I was twenty and had no real responsibilities. Now I have to keep it together for my family and keep things running as smoothly as possible. I am finding it very difficult to let go and cry or feel any emotion at all. I am afraid that I will never stop. So I just keep plugging away with bursts of activity and spots of sluggishness. I guess I will even out one day.

One of the things that I have started is taking a picture of Littlest every school day. Some days we have long "photo shoots" some days only time to snap a few quick pics.

Here is my favorite so far...

Bits n Bobs

So I haven't been posting. I guess I got out of the habit over the summer. I also just flat out don't know what to write about. I really don't want to talk about the summer or my Mom or her death or the fact that I am still hurt and angry about the fact that many friends and family were and have been MIA during this whole thing or any of that. I would rather have my toenails pulled out than talk about how I [insert really whiny tone] feeeeeelllllll. So since that is really all I think about, that doesn't leave much to talk about.

I have been running around starting projects and not finishing them in an effort to keep from thinking. And listening to audio books. Lots and lots of audio books, that way I have to think about the book while I scrub the toilet and not about how much I miss my mom and how much I hate everyone else and how much this all sucks.

So in an effort to get this started again ( and honestly maybe actually learn to express some feelings now and then) here are the current unfinished projects.

I taught myself how to crochet a granny square, but I only made the one! I wanted to learn how so I could make this...

blanket for breezy. It is huge, and is going to take forever!

Made clips for the Girlies, I DID finish these! Oh, and I finished THESE too.

Learned how to make fabric rosettes for this...

frame that I am going to decorate and fill with black and whites for Littlest's room. I have been working on this for a couple of years now.

Made a Saints Nation wooden flag for my door. This one is waiting for the vanish to dry before I can hang it on the front door. It still needs something, I just don't know what yet. It will come to me.

Look close, there is a tadpole/frog on that leaf. We have been "growing" these all summer. This one still has it's tail.

And last but not least I need to attatch these beauties to hair elastics and headbands for my godchild.

Guess I better go finish some of these up.

You have a "right" to smoke

[this is much more serious than my usual posts. I feel a need to get this out there. I will try to back to my usual crafty, fun self sometime.]

And you have a right to risk your health.

But do you have the right to put your loved ones through the hell that is dying of lung cancer?

Do you have the right to ask someone you love to clean you after you soil yourself because you lost the use of your lower body because of the cancer eating your spine?

Do you have the right to make your children's last memories of you ones in which you are screaming at them in pain as they turn you in the bed to prevent pressure wounds?

Do you have the right to make them listen helplessly to you struggle for breath, turning blue and fighting for even the smallest stream of air?

Do you have the right to hurt them to the core because while they are struggling to care for you, you can't even remember who they are because your brain is eaten away with cancer?

Do you have the right to ask your loved ones to give up their lives to nurse you?

Do you have the right to heap guilt on the heads on those same loved ones because they have families of their own that they have to take care of and work of their own to do and thus are pulled in multiple directions and no matter what they do someone is getting neglected?

Do you really think you can't quit? Or do you just not want to struggle though it? Do you love cigarettes more than your family? Do you want them to fully believe that you love the cigarettes more than them?

Sure you can smoke two packs a day and die at age 99 in your sleep. Odds are, however, that someone you love is going to have to nurse you as you die of a smoking related disease.  Or pay through the nose for someone else to do it for them.

Do you really want to do that to the people who love you, to those children you say you love more than life itself, those grandchildren you say you would do anything for?

Smoking NEVER just affects you, and it goes far beyond the dangers of second hand smoke.

Just think about it.

First Day of School

Monday was the first day of school, so here are the annual pictures!

The traditional " see how tall you have gotten" in front of the door picture.

It was so humid my camera lens fogged up!!!

Our new bus stop is down the street, instead of on our own corner! This will take some getting used to! 

Still humid and fogging up the camers lens!

Happy at the new bus stop!

Birthday Girl

Today is Littlest's Fourth Birthday!

So I am celebrating with a little photo documentary of her celebration.

She wanted a LaLaLoopsie cake!

Waiting to blow out the candles.

I'm Four!!!!!