I've Survived...

The Scotland County Relay for Life is officially over. The relay goal was $18,000, and at last count it was over $19,000. Our team , "Ropin' for a Cure" raised like $900 or something. Not bad for only doing stuff for the last couple of months. We did win the "Best Campsite" award. My sister called me at 4:30 while I was getting ready to walk out the door and told me that they needed more decorations. One team had a HUGE red airplane. (I didn't know at this point that none of the other teams were set up yet.) I went through my house and grabbed western stuff that we could take. My car and Gail's truck was filled with 2 rocking horses, 3 saddles, 1 saddle blanket, 2 Christmas trees (left decorated with a western theme from last winter), 2 pairs of chaps, a lasso, a large metal milk can with flowers in it, and a cowboy hat.

Now my focus is on to Lydia's birthday party. I've cleaned her bedroom, the spare bedroom, the bathroom, our room, the den, and I've finished cleaning out the flower beds. Now I need to focus on the living room, dining room, kitchen, and the basement. The basement has to wait until Gail finishes the back room from having the water line fixed. I was a little worried about making her birthday cake. It is important for me to make her birthday cakes (call me weird if you want). I have a picture in my mind of what I want it to look like and am worried about it not meeting my expectations. Some friends of ours stayed the weekend with us and she helped me make some of the decorations. I feel much better now. We went and bought some fireworks for her birthday party this weekend also. I CAN'T WAIT!!!

Another good thing happening this week is the end of summer school. ONLY THREE DAYS LEFT!!!

Cancer Sucks!!!

Everyone knows that cancer sucks. That is nothing new. With the Scotland County Relay for Life coming up with weekend, I've been thinking more and more about it. I'm going to share with you how cancer has effected my life.

1) My Grandma Franklin had breast cancer and is a 22 year survivor - YEAH!
2) My Great Aunt Mary (grandma's sister) also had breast cancer and has survived - YEAH!
3) In the spring of 2007 my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. She has also survived - YEAH!!!

With all of these strong women in my family having breast cancer, I think my chances of getting it are pretty good.

I can't imagine having to hear that you have that dreaded "C" word. After seeing all that my mother had to go through and is still dealing with I don't know what I would do. She's had surgery, surgery again, chemo, a mastectomy, chemo yet again, lost her hair, and that is just the physical things. Emotionally is has been a wreck. My mother is a lover of all kinds of clothing. For the rest of her life she has to be careful of what tops she wears. She has to have lymphodemia (spelling??) therapy (1 hour) everyday for the rest of her life!!! Her right arm is constantly swollen. I mean swollen to the point that at times she can hardly get herself dresses, fix her hair, put on make-up, or even eat. All of this from having to hear that she had the dreaded "C" word. However, the alternative would be worse - death.

To me, my mom has moved to the top of my hero list. She is one of the lucky survivors of the disease that has killed so many others. Each time I think of my mom going through what she has, always having a smile on her face, continuing to be a wonderful mother and friend - I just get teary eyed. My mother is truly a hero!!!

Once again - CANCER SUCK!!!

Until next time...

Am I a Terrible Person? ...

I've been reading blogs written by several stay-at-home mothers from a city lately. It sort of makes me feel guilty. They talk about having their child with them all the time and they close bond they feel with their child. One blog stated that they had only left their child with other people 8 to 10 times in a year!!! I have a close bond with Lydia, but makes me feel like she is going to be a dysfunctional member of society because of her feelings of abandonment. I take her to the sitters almost every weekday. I have no other choice. To be honest, I don't think I could stay home all of the time. I need my time away from home, and I think she needs time away from me. In my opinion she needs to feel that she can trust and depend on other people to help her. I think it makes me a better mommy and she seems "normal" to me. Should I really be worried about not spending enough time with her? Do you think she is going to grow up to be a bad person? Am I alone in this?

Until next time...

What a Wonderful Weekend...

In the new coming weeks there is a lot going on so it was nice to spend a relaxing weekend doing nothing. I say doing nothing, but I was actually busy. Friday I hit the Goody's 70% off sale with my sister. I got such great deals that I went back on Saturday with my friend Dianna. My goals is be get more stylish clothing. The past few years have really dampened what little style I had. I though three years ago I was doing ... well ok. Then I got pregnant and it was just whatever fit and was comfy. Then came the year of whatever I can get out of the house in that wasn't spit on, pooped on, peed on, or had mud from my dogs. This year my goal is to do better.

With all of my new "stylish" clothing, I decided I needed to clean out my closet and get rid of clothing that is too big, too small, or I just don't wear. I'm bad about hanging on to something because I may wear it. Out it went. Now I have two twenty gallon trash bags full that are all going to the baby sitter to see if she wants them.

I also went the weekend straightening stuff up, getting my basement cleaned up again, doing laundry, and mowing the yard while Lydia napped. It took me exactly two hours to mow and she naps for two hours. Maybe if the rain stops my yard will start to look better.

The items coming up that will keep us on our toes are the Scotland County Relay for Life and Lydia's birthday. I'll talk more about them later.

Until next time...

A Bit of Good News...

Drying off after an afternoon of swimming.

Playing at Grandma Mary's house. (That is our horse that caused my saddle situation in the background).




Making a FUNNY face. I think it is too cute.

With all the "stuff" and "drama" going on in my life right now, I was relieved to hear/see a bit of good news.

To recap we had a water leak. We had talked to the previous home owners to find out where the water line ran under the ground. When the plumber was digging he couldn't find the line where we thought it was. The only other place was under the nice blacktop driveway. We told him to go ahead and dig it up because it had to be fixed. While preparing to dig yesterday, the previous homeowner came over. After he and the plumber talked they decided to start where we knew the end was and dig backwards. Low and behold, when they started digging the line hadn't gone where the homeowners had thought. He almost dig up the driveway for no reason. So I was thrilled to come home and see that I still had a nice blacktop driveway around my house.

I'm still dealing with HFMD, birthday party stress, and fixing Gail's saddle (and now he wants to buy a new one). I have also added a new stress to the list that I won't add to this because I don't want to hurt any one's feelings. All I will say is that I think people think about their own lives and wants without thinking of the big picture and how it effects everyone else.

Until next time...

Chaos in my life...

Look at those baby blues.

First Popsicle.

I like it when my life just goes along with no drama, chaos, or major problems. Well, so far this summer is hasn't happened. I know what you are going to say, "That's just life so you'd better get used to it". I know, I know. But I still don't like it.

Let's start off with Lydia. She has gotten Hand Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD) from Wal-Mart of all places. Go figure, the carts aren't clean. The one time she goes there are I didn't have my antibacterial wipes to wipe it down. I think she got it on Tuesday, June 11. That Thursday she has a low fever, Saturday she broke out in a rash on her arms, hands, feet, and legs. By Monday those little red spots had turned into small blisters. I think her case is a mild one because she doesn't seem to be in pain.

Next, Gail. He had to miss a day of work on Monday because he couldn't' even get out of bed. He had a BAD migraine that made him dizzy, sick to his stomach, and CRANKY!!!!!

On the farm. Genius Gail decided that he would try to put the saddle on one of our horses that isn't broke. Went pretty well while Rocket was standing still. When he went to walk however, the stirrups hit his side and he went CRAZY!!! He looked like a bucking horse at the rodeo. With all of this action, he ran into a gate and busted one of the stirrups off. That is going to cost a pretty penny to fix.

Speaking of fixing...we are still dealing with the water leak. The plumber has dug huge trench clear through the yard and can't find the old water pipe. That means it is under the blacktop driveway. We are going to have to dig up our nice blacktop drive. Not happy about that, but better than the water leak. I'm still paying on the water bill from last month.

School (work) is one drama story after another. People are on power trips (main source of drama). And that is all I should say on that matter although I could go on FOREVER!!!

Now, I'm trying to plan and prepare a birthday party for Lydia's first birthday. I have this beautiful cake and yummy meal all planned out in my head and I'm afraid that it won't go this way. I guess I'm putting to much pressure on myself. I just want the first birthday to go perfectly.

Always listen to your parents...

I think those are the famous words that we have heard out entire lives. Well, it is true even as an adult. Our basement flooded back in March thanks to a broken water line at the water heater. It took almost three weeks to get everything back to "normal". (I'm still waiting for the bathroom to be finished.) The ground outside the walkout basement has been wet ever since. We have been blaming it on the water from the basement and all of the rain that we have been having. My parents have been saying since mid April that it is too much water there that we must have a leak. I had called the Missouri Dig Rite people to have it marked, but didn't actually dig because it started to dry up. Then more rain came. We hadn't been able to read the water meter so I had been estimating the water bill for the last couple of months. When I have to estimate I always go higher than I think so I don't get stuck paying a lot all at once in case I'm wrong. However, this time I was WAY OFF!!! A typical month with three people in my house, two dogs, two horses, and about 35 cows and calves, and 1 bull we would use 15,000 - 18,000 gallons. I've been estimating about 20,000 gallons. Should have been plenty of cushion, right??? Well, no. Gail was able to actually read the meter yesterday, I did the math, and it showed that we used 55,000 gallons ($463) this month!!! Yeah, small heart attack. Obviously mom and dad were correct and we do have a leak somewhere. Lesson learned, always listed to your parents. I called Missouri Dig Rite again, and talked to a not so nice lady. (Her idea of helping me to understand her question was to just talk louder and louder. As if her yelling into the phone is going to make me understand why I need to "relocate" the lines instead of "remark". Stupid me thinks relocate means to move them. I hope you don't make that mistake also.) Now Gail gets to start digging and try to find the leak. Hopefully he'll be able to find it and everything can get back to normal.

Also, Gail and I are stay at home people. We don't go out and do a long of things. A typical summer we will have 3 or 4 things that we go do. Family reunions, birthday parties, etc. Just this weekend alone there were 4 things we had going on. Gail's cousin came to stay with us, my class reunion, family reunion, and we had made plans to go visit some friends. Obviously we had to skip something. I had to miss my class reunion. I was bummed because there were some people that I really wanted to see and visit with. We had had a small get together the weekend before with a few classmates so I guess not all was lost.

Lydia had her first "run in" with the dogs, literally. On Friday my niece was watching her while I was at summer school. She called in a panic because Charlie had accidentally knocked her down and then Annie stepped in her. She has a small scratch on her cheek. Now she is a little scared of them. She's getting over it gradually. I'm surprised that it took 11 months for it to happen.

I'm working on planning her first birthday party. I have gotten several things to decorate with, the menu is planned, and I'm all ready to go. I'm a little worried about her birthday cake. I want to have flying butterflies on it, but I'm having trouble figuring out how to make them look like they are flying. I thought about wire, but I don't know if it will work. If you have any ideas let me know.

Until next time...