Super Happy Days

Wow, I swear I'm not regressing to my teenage years.  I really don't know why that phrase is fitting but I can't explain it any other way.  Fridays and Saturdays are super happy for me.  Even when I was going through the really bad depression, Fridays and Saturdays were still relatively good.  Everyone loves weekends but I really LOVE weekends.

Friday and Saturday mornings, there's no need for alarm clocks for the most part.  Both hubbie and I wake up without an alarm and we get snuggle time.  Just laying there waking up together starts my days off so much better.  Fridays are also my weekly lunch dates with my father-in-law.  He's diabetic and has lost a leg due to diabetes.  As of yet, he doesn't have a vehicle he can drive so I run him to his weekly diabetic appointment and then we grab lunch somewhere.  We usually eat in the car just because it's easier for him than running in everywhere as he's in a wheelchair whenever he has to go more than a few feet with his cane.  Just being able to talk with someone familiar outside my household is really nice for me.  Every other Friday, we also pickup Shalyn to have her for the weekend.  Having the house full of kid stuff, laughter and yes, childish bickering just fills my heart.  I also try to find fun stuff for them to do over the weekend so that they're entertained by more than electronics.

Saturdays are nice sleep in days and full of fun, household chores and family time.  Yes, household chores make me happy.  We have a small house full of a lot of people which makes it so hard to keep everything in its place.  So getting the house back in order after a busy week makes my OCD self very happy.  We snuggle on the couch in our jammies, we bake, we clean, we watch movies as a family.  There's just nothing better!

I'm off to fold socks that we've been throwing in a sock bin all week, in my jammies of course!  Have a terrific weekend.

My Husband's Grandparents

My grandfathers passed before I was old enough to know them and my grandmothers went about the same way so having "grandparent-in-laws" has been a wonderful relationship for me.  Unfortunately, this is the only picture I have of the two of them together.  I have others but they're stuck on a dead laptop :(.  She was in the hospital and this was taken a few days before she passed on.  Since my 2nd husband and I married later on in life, I didn't get to know her as much as I wanted to.  She had hearing issues and outside of my own house, I'm very soft-spoken.  So we didn't have many conversations.  It's been almost a year and I still miss her terribly though we didn't know each other well.

But my gratitude really is more for his grandfather.  He's cankerous, ornery, a pain in the neck, absolutely stubborn and everything I'd want in my own grandfather.  I spend one day a week with him cleaning up the house.  He's 95, afraid of nursing homes and can't get around very well.  He's done so much for his family that we all pitch to make sure he can stay in his own home.

I'm grateful to have been able to form a bond with this man who has taught me so much in the last five years.  Especially this last one.  We've gone from pleasantries to really having heartfelt conversations and from what I understand, he doesn't do that with anyone.  He's done so much in his life and at the top of it all, he's strived to provide everything his family needs.  He's helped me mature immensely and I want to do nothing more than make him proud.  Every time there's unpleasantness with the extended family, I always want to distance myself, then I think about how much he would disapprove.  If he notices conflict between family members, he's the first to try to fix the fissure.  He reminds us that family should always be there no matter what.  And because of him, I may not be there holding their hands all the time, but when they need a hand, they know they can count on me.  And it's all due to a 95 year old man who loves a granddaughter-in-law.

This weekend, this wonderful man--who's fought in every war in his lifetime up until Desert Storm, who's taken sniper bullets in the neck, who built a house for his wife and four boys in three months before he was deployed, who has given just about everything he has for his family and country--is in the hospital with congestive heart failure.  We feel strongly he will come home to us but because of his age, there's a really big fear that he may go HOME to join his wife.  Of course, it's our selfishness that makes us want to have him with us in body and spirit, but God's Will be done.  Please help me pray for him. If it's his time, pray that he goes quickly and painlessly.  Pray that our family is ready to be without his constant, supportive guidance and that we can pull together and help one another.  If it's not his time and his wife can be without him a little longer, please pray for a speedy recovery.

Family Introduction

Welcome to my crazy family!  This is most of us, missing are my oldest son Austin, his wife Jessica and their daughter, Victoria.  Hoping to get a picture of the ENTIRE family this year.

Top Row (left to right): Sabrina, Hubbie, Me, Dustin and Billy

Bottom Row (left to right): Zakkary and Shalyn

Billy is 19, Sabrina 18, Dustin 16, Zakkary 9, and Shalyn is 8.  

I adopted Austin, pictured holding my first grandchild Victoria, when he was three.  I married his father who had full custody and his birth mother allowed me to adopt him.  Sabrina, Dustin and Zakk are my birth children.  I divorced their father and married my current hubbie who brought Billy and Shalyn into our family.  Hubbie and I have been together for almost six years, married for three.

Stitches holding Victoria this summer.

Now for the children that I nanny.  I've been with the family for about two years and they've definitely become a part of the family.  Sabrina attends high school online so she co-nannies with me affording me the opportunity to attend classes.

Surprisingly, I don't have a clear picture of all three of them together.  Gave them nicknames just so I don't have to worry about anything.  So first up is Ace, 7.  He's a first grader so I really only see him occasionally.

Then we have Flutterby, she just turned 5 and those are her absolute favorite pants in the whole wide world!

Lastly is Bullet, he's 2 1/2.  Nicknamed appropriately, this little guy keeps Sabrina and myself on our toes.

Besides the Basketball team of children, we also have two basset hound/lab mixes.  They're brothers from the same litter but they don't look like it.  Bo is Dustin's dog and he's about the size of a basset.  Harley is my dog and I swear he was mixed with a great dane!  I wanted dogs that we could keep in the house without destroying everything, it didn't quite work out.  Harley's tail takes out anything he walks by!

Bo (mostly white here but now mottled brown/white) and

Harley (mostly black) at three months old.

We also have two cats, both male as well.  We had a third, who my sister-in-law let out of the house accidentally one day and she came back with our oldest male,Tye, as a surprise.  She lucky only had the one kitten but she passed away soon afterwards.  Tye is solid black shorthair and is also Dustin's pet.  

Tye, Dustin's cat.

Bandit the day we found him being held by Shalyn after his bath.

Bandit is the newest addition, one I wasn't wanting but couldn't say no.  He's a black and white with medium fur which belongs to Sabrina.  She had been begging and begging for a kitten for months and I kept telling her we already had a full house.  Well, parked outside the grocery store with ALL the kids in the car on a cold, rainy night, we saw a tiny bundle of fur sitting in the middle of the parking lot.  He was dripping with both rain and blood.  Sabrina ran out of the car, put her hand out and called him over.  He came right to her and he became a part of the household.  Luckily, he just had a small cut on his nose that we were able to take care of easily.

Bandit a couple of days after he joined the household.

Well, that's us, we've definitely got a full house, but it makes for a full heart.