Trying Not to Turn This Into a Sewing Blog....

Friday night was pretty uneventful for us, we stayed home all night. I ended up staying up until 1am working on Delilah's Valentine's dress however. Which really kicked my butt when I had to be up and out of the house Sat. morning in time to pick my mom up at 9am. We went shopping for the whole day.

I had things to return and pictures to pick up at Walmart. She had a fax to send at her school. Then I had to pick up a few things at Target and she had to exchange a sweater at Kohl's. Then we spent a bit of time in Hobby Lobby. They had Simplicity patterns on sale for 99cents each and even though I had gone the day before and bought my limit of 10, I still had more I wanted. I ended up buying 6 more. Then I had to get the trim for Sophia's Valentine's shirt, the bias tape to finish Delilah's dress, and the elastic for Sophia's shirt. I looked at fabric, but the kids were way too wild to stay long. My mom had given them candy before we left town, never a good move. We ate lunch at Panera Bread, our favorite, and then headed out to pick up our family pictures from Sears. After that we dropped my mom's jewelry off to be inspected at Zale's while we waited the kids used their Border's gift cards they received from Kyla. After we picked up the jewelry we headed home.

I wasn't at my parents house for more than 15mins before I left with Jason and Rosy. They were going to look at vans. We left all the kids with my parents and headed out. Not long after we left Sophia and Aidan were picked up by Patience. It was their turn to spend the night, Lilly and her friend had spent one night the week before. Patience took them and Meme to Chuck E Cheese, they had a blast. But they stayed up until after 11pm, which I don't really mind, because I wasn't in charge. I just made them nap the next day.

Jason, Rosy, and I looked at a van, then they took me to Hancock Fabric to get more patterns. They had Butterick on sale for $1.99 and I had picked out Lilly and Aidan's Valentine's shirts online in their patterns. I also got a large cardboard cutting board, so I can stop putting pin marks in my table top. Then we drove around looking for more vans, but the one place they saw one they liked was closed by the time we arrived. We then attempted to eat out at a sit down place, no such luck at 6:30 on a Sat. We ended up eating at KFC, it was alright but gave me a tummy ache.

Sat. night I stayed up way too late again finishing Delilah's dress. It wasn't that hard, the only thing is it's a bit too long. I need to hem it more.

Sunday I had to pick Sophia and Aidan up by 10am, at 9:30 my aunt called to make sure I was coming. :P They must have driven her nuts. Then we went to my mom's to pick Lilly up and hang out for a little while. We came home, Sophia, Aidan, and Delilah napped, Lilly and I cleaned and then I napped for a couple hours. Last night I stayed up again way too late cutting out Lilly, Aidan, and Sophia's shirts. That took forever even though there aren't that many pieces per shirt.

Today I napped for a couple hours then went to Walmart to get the elastic I needed for Lilly's shirt. Then we stopped by Rosy and Jason's to see the progress on their kitchen and to have cookies, yum. Went to pick up the girls from school and then went to the grocery store. I am exhausted and my children are driving me crazy. Pretty normal day. :P

Off and Running

Now that I completed my first project I went out and found some more fabric I liked. I bought fabric to make Lilly, Aidan, and Sophia Valentine's Day shirts and Delilah a dress. I found a cute white with tiny red hearts fabric, for Delilah I am doing a tiered dress with the white w/red hearts fabric and a red w/white hearts fabric. I think it will turn out cute. The best part? No buttons or zippers on her dress. :P

I am exhausted, I haven't caught up from Sunday night. I planned to go to bed early last night, but at 7 my parents showed up. I was caught way off guard and my kitchen (where my mother always goes first) was a complete disaster from dinner. I normally clean the kitchen before bed and it was really dirty last night since I sewed instead of cleaned Sunday night. They came over and informed my that Jason and Rosy told them to bring my van to pick them up at the airport. Of course, as usual with my family, not everyone (me) was privied to this information. My van was a wreck, but whatever, beggars can't be choosers.

The best part of them borrowing my van? My dad gassed it up for me when they got back in town. :) He even filled it all the way up when I had less than 3/4 of a tank. The worst part? I had to stay up until they came back with the van. Which was 10:45pm. I was extremely tired. I really should have napped while they were gone, but stupidly I watched tv and surfed the web for Easter dress patterns and fabrics. -BTW, off subject, but I think I am going to go with Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit toile for their dresses. They have it in four different colors! But it's kind of pricey, like $7-10 a yard. We will see, I have months to think about it and look around.

Sophia, Delilah, and I went to Walmart today to pick up scrapbooks I had made at the photo center. While there I also picked up $45 worth of fabric, supplies, and patterns. But that's enough to make all four Valentine's Day shirts/dress and two yards each of two fabrics I just fell in love with. I can make at least two more things with those, maybe 3 or four depending on what I make. After Walmart we went to see Rosy and Alan. The kids played and had fun while Rosy and I caught up. We hadn't talked much these past few weeks. It was a nice visit.

Now I am waiting for my dryer to finish, then I will put my washed fabric in to dry. I plan on cutting out Aidan's dress tonight and starting to sew it tomorrow, depending of course, on how well Delilah and Sophia are behaving.

He's Gone, Again....

It's harder this time around. I am alone with the girls this time around. My entire family is out of town right now, parents in Chicago, brother in Mexico. It's just harder this time. Before I had Judy here to keep my mind busy and the first two months I went non-stop from activity to activity. It also doesn't help that it's winter right now and I haven't been going out as much before he arrived.

His visit was wonderful, but far too short and went by far too fast. We had barely a day to sit and do nothing. We had two family portrait sessions in two weeks. Three family dinners in two weeks. One dinner out alone,a dinner out with my family, and a dinner out with just his family. We also had Christmas Eve dinner at my parents house and Christmas dinner here at our house. Both dinners were delicious. The girls received way too many presents from everyone. We had Lilly's play to go to and Kale spent a day volunteering at the school. We had a morning of baking with the kids, Meme, and Judy. The women went out shopping the morning after Christmas. Kale took the girls to the movies twice they saw Bolt and The Tale of Despereaux. It was a busy busy two weeks but it was a happy two weeks.

Thankfully Delilah and Sophia are better. Delilah hated her meds and they had to be force fed to her or hidden in food. FUN! She has also not regained her appetite as of yet. Hopefully she will get it back soon.


I leave you with our second family photo shoot:

Kale, David, and Judy

In-Laws David and Judy

Delilah didn't want to hold still but sat still when we sat her on the sled.

Sophia and her silly smile.

Aidan's sillier smile.

Lilly

This isn't the best one of the four of them, but it's the funniest.

Four generations of Kale's family. His Dad David and his grandma Margaret aka Nanny.

Alone Tonight!

Kale and I are getting to go out to dinner alone tonight, thanks to my mom offering to watch all the girls for us. I think she may even keep all four over night for once. Not that I really care, usually once Delilah is in bed she is there for the night.

Kale had lunch with Aidan today and read her class a story or two. He even took Sophia with him, which was nice. I got to be alone for awhile as Delilah went down for a nap and is still down. She doesn't feel well and had her immunizations given to her yesterday. I was surprised they let her get them as she was coming down with a cold. I think she is moving on to ear infection now. FUN!

Kale and Sophia are going back to the school here in a little while for Lilly's holiday party. Then after school we are dropping the four of them at my mom's house for the rest of the evening. He finally decided he wants to eat at Olive Garden and have dessert at Cheesecake Factory. Fine by me.

Tomorrow the six of us are going to see Bolt and having lunch at Panera Bread, after the girls clean their rooms. And we have to put our tree up still. :S This is the first time since I have been an adult that my tree has not gone up the day after Thanksgiving. I just couldn't lift it by myself and we have been so busy the last two days.

We were lucky Kale was able to get on the very first flight out of Jacksonville on Wed. I was worried we were going to miss our family picture appointment. That was a whirlwind day. We picked Kale up, went to Walmart, came home, got ourselves and the younger two ready, went and surprised the girls at the school, came home, got them ready, met Jason & Rosy so they could follow us, got our pictures done, high tailed it to the school just in the nick of time for Lilly's play, watched the play, and came home where everyone (my parents and the teens also) had pizza for dinner. It was tiring, but a good day.

All of our days, I think, will be tiring but good. Kale just caught Sophia painting her finger and toe nails. One of my aunts bought Aidan make-up, AGAIN, this year. They never think of me when they buy such things. Last year Aidan painted the walls and her toys with the nail polish. It's not peel off nail polish either, GRRR!

Hope everyone has a fun weekend!

Family Pictures!

Getting Delilah to stand still was no easy task!

Lilly's the only one that looked weird in this picture, but all the rest of the pictures of the six of us my dress had lowered in the front and looked funky.

We are all looking and most of us are smiling, success! :P
The woman was wonderful, she took 82 pictures of us and didn't delete any of them.

We had left to go to Lilly's play so I didn't see these until I talked Green into bringing me the disks.

Mom and Dad

Alan wasn't real cooperative either, he wanted down. Jason paid Sophia to make him smile and laugh. It didn't work as well in their family picture as it did on his pictures alone.

Her natural smile, nice to see it usually she has a fake one planted on her face.

Aidan had fallen and bumped her mouth just before it was her turn. You can tell she had been crying.

Love it!

He's too cute!

She's hard to capture on film! But the woman managed it.

He's HOME!

Just a quick post to let you know he's home. He got on the first plane out of Jacksonville this morning. He was here by 9:15am. Delilah did surprisingly well, she was in a super good mood. Which is weird since she cut two new teeth last night.

Kale is getting the younger girls bathed right now while I was getting ready for our family picture. It's funny to listen to him struggle, I know I shouldn't be tickled by this but I so am.

Have a good day!

Snow Day...Not for My Girls!

There are only two school districts in the greater KC area that didn't cancel school today....Fort Leavenworth and Leavenworth. I briefly thought about not taking the girls to school regardless, but my mom quickly talked some sense into me. Instead we were barely on time. It's still snowing right now and we have about 5inches or so. At least their Girl Scout meetings are canceled tonight. My mom is in Lansing School District, so she had the whole day off. And apparently she rubbed Stella and Meme's noses in it this morning, Stella didn't appreciate it much (neither would I).

Sophia, Delilah, and I packed up to go make cookies with Rosy and Alan. Aidan had a cookie exchange at her GS meeting, which is now canceled but I can still use the cookies for Lilly's holiday party on Friday. I have to go out to pick up the girls in about an hour and I don't want to. :( It's too cold outside and I am warm and sleepy. Oh well, it's my last day of having to chauffeur for awhile.

Kale is still on the ground in Cuba, the plane to Jacksonville is late, due to get there in 30-60mins. They are normally supposed to leave around noon, of course today they are behind. I was not happy when he called to let me know. Hopefully he will still have enough time to make his flight in Jacksonville. Needless to say I now have a tension headache. I am also worried Green won't want to drive over here tonight, he doesn't do well in the snow. If he won't I am sure my brother will go get him and drop him off. Of course that means we have to take him home tonight. GRR! It's not going according to plan. I hate not having control of things and I have no control over any of this.

COLD!

It's gone from 5 degrees to 2 degrees in the last hour. It's cold. We don't normally get this kind of cold in KS, it's more like the cold we dealt with the three years we spent in MA. The windchill today is -14 degrees. Kale is going to freeze his a** off tomorrow night and probably every day he is here. Cuba is nice and toasty warm, but I don't feel a bit sorry for him having to come here to freezing temps.

I spoke with my mother about the situation with Lilly's teacher. My mom is a principal and has been for 12+ years so I often go to her for guidance. I like to run things by her first to make sure I am not worrying for nothing or going overboard. She thinks I am completely justified feeling the way I do. She mirrored my opinion that the teacher just doesn't want to do her JOB. So I took her advice and I asked for a meeting with the principal. Kale and I will be going together, when it comes to my kids I tend to get overly emotional and feel like I am being attacked, even if I really am not. So I need someone to be there to calm me. I wish my mom could go with me, but she hasn't the time and she likes to make me handle things myself. If it goes further though, I think she will step in and help out.

Aidan is getting sassier and sassier. I wanted to smack her yesterday. We had our Christmas with Jason, Rosy, and Alan since they are leaving next Friday. And Aidan had two gifts to open, one from them and one from my Aunt Mel. The only reason she had the second gift was because my uncle decided they needed to open more than one and brought the gifts from her over. After Aidan opened her two gifts, loving both of them, expressing thanks, all that good stuff, then came the water works and the "I don't have any more presents to open!" Then the screams "I WANT MORE PRESENTS TO OPEN!" I cut her off quickly, which is how you have to deal with Aidan so it doesn't escalate quickly. Usually when I am with my family my dad steps in and starts yelling and arguing with her, it just makes it worse. They usually end up in a screaming match, really they are like the same person. The louder someone yells at them, the louder they yell. It's lovely when they get into it with each other. I was able to get her to go to sit by herself and calm down rather quickly. I am not sure, but I think this behavior is going to take something drastic to get it to stop. Like taking away a present or something the next time she does it. Selfishness is not something I take very well, it drives me NUTS! And she is the only child that acts that way, the others are happy with what they get. Not her, she always wants MORE.

I guess if she does it again I will be taking her to donate a toy or two to Toy's for Tots, out of her own Christmas presents. She needs to learn selflessness. I am just not sure how to teach it, I will figure it out though, I know it.

Tomorrow! He will be here tomorrow night! :)

It's Snowing!

It's not the first time it's snowed this winter, but it's coming down a lot faster than last time. Maybe it will be enough to cancel today's Girl Scout Ceremonies, I don't feel like going and being social. And of course both girls have ceremonies the same day and time, so that is wonderful. My aunt is taking Lilly for me, so at least I don't have to feel the guilt of "No one is going to my ceremony!" Although Aidan maybe upset that I am going to hers instead of Patience, we will see. I also have to go get a dessert to bring with us. And I have to go to the post office to return the wool dress coat I bought and didn't notice the sizing was junior's sizing. Needless to say it did not fit. I ordered a new one in the appropriate size already.

Some pictures of recent acquisitions:

Kale's New "Top Coat" for Dressier Outings

My New Dress Coat

My Dress for Our Family Pictures

K made two of these dresses out of fabric I bought this past fall. One for Sophia and one for her "friend Abby".

Here's Abby modeling the dress. I would post one of Sophia modeling hers but it was just mailed out yesterday.

After Judy decided she wanted a family picture also, I decided for my side of the family's picture we would all wear brown and pink or black. I couldn't find anything I liked for Lilly so Keisha offered to make me one. I just had to pick a pattern and she found the fabric. She is my hero, she made the entire dress in less than 12hrs. Impressive to me as I have little to no sewing experience. I also don't have a picture of her modeling it as it was also mailed out yesterday.

I have also recently bought Aidan and Delilah wool dress coats, Sophia's my mom bought a couple of years ago at a yard sale for only $3. It's in perfect condition and only needed to be dry cleaned. I bought Lilly's last year in an after Christmas sale. I almost always buy coats a little big so they last longer than one season. We will be a well dressed family this winter. :)

12 Days and Counting.....

Very, very soon Kale will be back, the 16th to be exact. He gets in at 11pm that night and I am picking him up myself. Green has volunteered to come over and sit with the sleeping children. The girls don't know exactly when he is arriving, just that it's soon and before Christmas. Lilly will be very excited he will be able to attend her Christmas musical on the 17th.

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Black Friday

As is the tradition for the women in my family we went shopping on Black Friday. Green was kind enough to spend the night on my couch and "take care of" (be the adult in the house just in case) the older three girls. Rosy insisted I leave Delilah with Jason and Alan, I wasn't going to argue. I am just glad for my brother that she went straight back to sleep after I dropped her off at 4:40am. As always I have to be the first one up that morning because I am the driver and I have to pick everyone up. I picked Rosy up, dropped Delilah off, and picked Patience up. It's really not bad, I live 10mins from Rosy, Patience lives across the street from Rosy, and then it's 5mins to my mom's from there.

We went to Walmart first, arriving just before the doors opened. There was a line formed all the way around the outside of the store. We joined at the very end and it took us about 15mins to get inside. It was very cold that morning, only 20 degrees. Rosy was not ready for that, this was her first time getting up at the crack of dawn to join us. She went the years before, but after 8am usually. My mom bought her 50" Plasma TV my dad wanted, Rosy bought a trampoline, Meme picked up some gifts for the girls, Stella bought shampoo and nail polish remover (we teased her about this), Patience bought toys for her grandson Matthew, and I bought pj's and toys for the girls. My mom got right through the line and took the tv home while we shopped and stood in line. Patience and I didn't take too long in our line. We had a nice older lady in front of us and she was not letting a line jumper in our line. It was very funny to watch her tell him no he couldn't "squeeze in". Other than that we didn't see any arguments. After I got through the line I went to keep Rosy company, it took her awhile to get into line since they had to find a flatbed cart for her trampoline, that sucker was heavy. I couldn't even lift one end. It took us and hour to get through her line to pay. Then the worker loaded it in the van and we had to take it to her house or nothing else would fit.

We didn't get out of town (out of walmart) until 7:30am, then we headed to north KC. We spent another hour at Toys R Us. Then Kohl's, Target, lunch at Applebee's, and Old Navy. We were home about 3:30pm. I found Green as I left him, sleeping on my couch. The girls were dressed and had been fed, he woke up long enough to handle that much. It's a good thing Lilly is older and can take care of things. Delilah gave Jason a run for his money, she and Alan like to fight. There was an incident with Alan's poopy diaper and her grabbing it and flinging the poop everywhere. We laughed our butt's off at that one when he called to share. All and all it was a fun day, I wasn't sure I would be able to go this year and I am thankful my family stepped up to the plate to help out.

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The Days Ahead

We have a ton planned for when Kale is here. It's going to be a whirlwind visit, I think our heads will be spinning by then end of the trip.

17th: Trim the Tree, Family Picture (ENTIRE Family, all 14 of us), Lilly's Musical
18th: Delilah and I have doctors appointments at 1pm
19th: My parents are watching the girls and we are going out to dinner ALONE/Jason, Rosy, and Alan leave for Mexico and won't return until the 5th of Jan.
20th: Kale is taking the older three to see Bolt
21st: Kale's b-day dinner (his b-day was 11/22) at Famous Dave's with our extended family
22nd: Painting Sophia's room white again and switching her room and Delilah's
23rd: Kale's parents and Nanny arrive/We will go out alone again
24th: Christmas at my parents with everyone
25th: Christmas of course/plus Kale and his dad are taking the older three to Tale of Despereaux/Judy and I are making dinner/My mom and the teens are coming over for dinner
26th: Probably family pictures with Kale's family (since Judy all of the sudden after 5 years decided she wants to get it done professionally again, AFTER she has said numerous times that regular snapshots are good enough)/My parents and the teens leave for Chicago
27th: His family leaves
28th: Not sure yet
29th: He leaves at 6pm :(

The only positive thing about Jason, Rosy, and Alan being in Mexico for Christmas is that they are letting Kale's family stay at their house. That way we aren't cramped here and they don't have to spend money on a hotel. Otherwise it sucks, we will miss them like we do every year.

I may be hit and miss again during all of this. I have been very lazy, bored, and tired lately.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

MIA

I have not been up to blogging or reading this past week, I will catch up soon. I have been dealing with Delilah's constipation issues. We dealt with the same issues with Aidan when she was this age. We battled severe constipation for 3 years before we finally got a handle on it. With Aidan we found out it was milk, put her on Lacatid (lactose free) and she has been fine unless she has lots of dairy. I don't know what Delilah's issue is, she is already on Lactaid. I thought maybe it was goldfish snacks, but I cut those out of her diet and she is still having trouble. It came out of nowhere, so I am not sure what to do with her. So my life has been full of suppositories, probotic yogurt, fruit, and veggies. I am trying aloe vera juice now, but she doesn't like it. I tried hiding it in strawberry milk, but no luck she doesn't like it. I tried tea and juice, she doesn't like either. I tried pushing liquids, K thought she might not be drinking enough since it's cold. No luck there either. It's not an everyday fight, yet, but I know how quickly it can become one and I don't want to go there again. Aidan was miserable and so was I for years, I can't and won't go through this again.

Other than that, I haven't been very busy lately. I am nearly done with the kids Christmas shopping, Delilah is the only one who needs anything more. I am just having a hard time finding things for her. I have found her a few things that are not toys, a personalized hooded towel and a personalized pillowcase. But that's really all I have been able to come up with. I still have most of the adults in my family to buy for yet, but I will work on them closer to Christmas. I am ready to shop on black Friday, we are hoping Green will keep the girls as we usually head out at 4am. At least the older three, I may take Delilah with us. We haven't hashed out all the details yet. I am hoping to find an MP3 player for Lilly, we bought her one last year but it's not compatible with our Napster program. Plus we can't figure out how to get any music on it period, even had my brother try. I know what brand to buy this time, so I will get her one that will work.

It's now less than one month until Kale arrives. It's getting closer to the time when I will be able to relax. :P At least Delilah has started sleeping through the night, finally! So I am getting more continuous sleep, it really helps. She also has a new word "Uh-Oh" it's very cute to hear her say it. She likes to drop things then say it. She also says a bunch of words that sound like "It fell down", but not clearly. Sophia is still in the horrible threes, some days are unbearable. She seems to have gotten louder, I never thought it was possible. I really screwed myself, we made a deal when she was inutero that since she was the hardest pregnancy to that point she had better be my best baby. And she was a dream baby, until she turned two. I should have asked her to be the best child and teen also. :P

I will post some pictures and links of the stuff I have found for the girls tomorrow and Friday. I will also catch up with everyone then too.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Trick or Treating at Aunt Patience and Uncle Guy's house

Uncle Guy is always excited to see the girls

Looking at all their goodies in the bags Aunt Patience put together for them

Uncle Guy taking a look at the ruby slippers and toto

No more candy Sophia!

Giving hugs goodbye

Delilah was out, she hadn't slept all day

Meme carving her pumpkin

Stella carving hers

An unhappy lamb

Sacagewea

Getting ready to hit the neighborhood

Yes I am back dating this. :P

I have a pitbull/neighbor update for Monday.

Things That Have Been Going On

First and foremost my grandfather has been in and out of the hospital for three weeks or more. This week they really thought he was going to pass. It's been hard to be in limbo. Technically he is not my grandpa, he is married to my mom's mom, but he has been married to her since before I was born. I credit my mother greatly for not clouding our love for him with her opinions of him. She did not like him and until recently didn't have a very good opinion of him. But she never let it show to me, I never even knew anything about her not liking him until I was an adult. So even though he is not my blood grandfather, I love him all the same. I am worried for him and really worried for my grandma, when he goes she will be very lonely and she can't drive so she will be stuck at home. She hates to ask for help, but will have to learn after he passes.

In other news Judy (mil) broke her foot this past weekend. Not bad enough to require a cast, but she has to keep it wrapped and wear a special shoe. The only reason this really affects me is because she will be coming out when my grandpa passes, to take care of the girls while we go to the funeral. While I hope he lives for years to come, I am realistic and I realize he really only has months to live (hopefully). When we thought he was going to pass on Monday she still planned on flying out she just asked if my parents would leave the teens with her to help. My mom didn't have a problem with that, it will just be a little crowded here at my house. No big deal though. The rest of us, probably including Green will drive out and go to the funeral whenever it happens.

Last night my uncle blew through town with his girlfriend Rhonda. We all went out to dinner together, even though I had already fed the girls when my dad called and told me to meet them at Applebee's in town. We had a nice visit with him. And Rhonda told me she has a cabin 30mins from Jacksonville. She said she will pick me up from the airport, let me stay the night, and then take me to the base the next day for my flight to Cuba. :) That will help out a lot, then we won't have to pay for a hotel for that night in Jacksonville or a shuttle to the base. I was a little worried about doing all of this on my own anyways, but now I won't have to.

Last night was a good night of sleep for me. Delilah slept from the time I went to bed until I got up at 7am this morning. It was a welcome change from her recent behavior, waking me every 1-3hrs all night long. I needed to have some continuous sleep.

Tomorrow Lilly and Aidan are having a "character parade" basically it's a Halloween parade, but they have to dress as actual literature book characters. Lilly is an Native American and is going as Sacajawea. Aidan of course is Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. They just have to carry a copy of the book their character is from during the parade. I plan on going to watch the parade tomorrow morning. Hopefully I get another good nights sleep. After the parade I have many things I need to get done before I have to pick them up at 1pm, I am not sure why they are getting out early Halloween I guess. I wish they weren't, tomorrow is pay day and I have a lot of things to do.

I will post pictures of the parade tomorrow. Have a good day!

Good News

The first piece of good news we received on Wednesday, Kale is going to be promoted on November 1st! This means a pretty good raise for him, which is good for me of course. I still don't think we will be able to move anytime soon though, even though technically we are living in housing that is meant for lower ranking families.

The next piece of good news I received yesterday in the girls report cards. Lilly has 3 A's and 1 B+. I was a little upset with the B+ because the reason she got the B+ was because she got two C's on these weekly reader things they do. The weekly reader is like a little magazine, they read it and then answer questions. It bothers me she got C's on two of them because it was carelessness on her part. You are allowed to use the reader to answer the questions and they are only 4 pages long, so it's not like you have to look hard for the answers. I gave her a little bit of a hard time about it, but not too bad.

Aidan's report card was also very good. She is Proficient in all areas but "Data Application" and "Problem Solving" in those areas she was Satisfactory. So she is doing good in those areas, but that's where there is room for improvement. They also sent home a sheet that tells their reading level so far. The scale is like this:

A B C D E F G H I J +

The first 9 weeks the kids should be in CDE to be on grade level, AB is below grade level. The second 9 weeks EFG is on grade level, ABCD below grade level. The third 9 weeks GHI is on grade level and ABCDEF is below grade level. The fourth nine weeks IJ is on grade level, ABCDEFGH is below grade level and "+" is above grade level. Well, right now, Aidan is already at the "+" to think we were actually a little worried about her reading ability at the beginning of the year. I think she had a confidence issue, we knew she could read, has been able to since Kindergarten, but she refused to read to anyone. She doesn't like to be wrong (she gets that from me), now that she knows she can read and read very well, she is doing wonderfully. We knew she was smart, just stubborn.

So that's my good news for the week. Well, that and I get rid of Lilly and Aidan for the weekend, YEI! They are going camping with their Girl Scout troops. They will have a blast and the rest of us are going to Boo @ the Zoo and enjoying the peace and quiet. :P

Is it too much to ask?

I am looking for a nice hotel in Nashville, TN. All I want is a nice hotel with a big bathtub, it doesn't even have to be jacuzzi, although that would be a plus. I don't want to spend a fortune though.

I am just doing research for when Kale comes home for good. He will have most of June off and when we go visit his parents we plan on taking a night or two and going off to be alone. We want to either go to Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga, or Memphis, that way we are close but far enough away. Since he has been gone we have realized how much we really need our time alone, without the kids.

I just wish all of the hotels would post pictures of their bathrooms. If I wanted a standard size tub I would stay home. I am sure eventually I will find what I am looking for, but it's been a little frustrating.

Not Much Going On....

I have stayed home pretty much all week and all last week. With the exception of last weekend when we went to the Renaissance Festival and the girls each had birthday parties. Other than that I have been hanging out at home.

This week we started what I hope will be our new routine. We walked to school to pick up the girls Monday and Wednesday, we will do it again today also. It's 3miles round trip, so that's a pretty good distance to walk. As long as it's nice I plan on doing this every Mon, Wed, and Fri. Sophia is such a good walker, she walked both times back and forth with little to no complaints. Aidan has always been my worst about walking and she burst into tears on Wed when she found out we were walking home. Of course then on the way home she asked if we could walk to school everyday, that child is full of contradictions.

Speaking of Aidan, she had her MAP testing done in school and I received the results last Friday. Basically it said she is High Average to High in all the reading components. Half of the math components she is Average to High Average, the other half however she needs to work on. Which included problem solving, so I have to work on that with her. Kale is hoping she doesn't have his math brain and that she gets mine instead. He hates math and isn't very good at it. I love math and have always excelled at math. Math to me is great, it's not subjective, there is always a right or wrong answer.

Delilah took her first steps last night! I am excited, soon I won't have to carry her chubby butt everywhere. She weighs almost as much as Sophia now. Granted Sophia is a skinny butt just like Lilly, but still they are two years apart. Alan has surpassed Sophia now, by 3 pounds. He is a big boy.

I don't have any major plans for the weekend. All I know is I get rid of my kids for a night (the older girls) when they spend the night at my parents. I will probably go home early and relax with just Delilah here.

Judy and Kale's dad David will be here next Thursday and are staying until the following Tuesday. They are coming out to help with the yard sale. Then they are going to Branson for their 40th anniversary, they have never been. They will have a good time there, as long as my fil isn't his normal stick in the mud self.

Well, I better get dressed and get to the post office. I have been telling Kale I would mail his package all week. :S

Have a good weekend!

A little something to look forward to, I hope....

I asked Kale to look into what it will take for me to visit him during the second half of his tour. Probably around our anniversary in Feb. It is a big one, like I said it's the big TEN. If I get to go then it will be the first "vacation" we will have taken alone since Lilly was born.

This is what we know so far:

1) I have to have a passport. That's $100 right there. I have "fixed" not having to pay for that ourselves by telling my parents that I want it for Christmas. Even if I don't get to go it will still be good for 10+ years I think.

2) I have to fly from here to Jacksonville and take the shuttle to the Navy base where I will fly on a military plane into Guantanamo Bay. We have to pay for both flights. So far the flight from here to JAX is looking to be about $140, not too bad. We don't know how much the other flight is yet, he is looking into it.

3) The flights from the base are always early in the morning, so I will have to fly into JAX and rent a hotel room for a night. I am not really comfortable going to a hotel by myself, I haven't travelled alone since I was 18 and more adventurous.

4) When I get to Cuba I can't stay in his room, so we will have to stay in guest lodging while I am there. That's okay though, there is more privacy there then in his house. Plus his room only has a twin bed and we haven't slept in a twin bed together since we were dating. I think we both take up a little more room than we used to. :P

5) Judy has already said she would come take care of the kids for us. :) I knew she would, but it's nice she offered when I mentioned going to visit Kale.

6) On the way back I should be okay to catch a flight out of JAX after arriving at the Base and taking the shuttle to the airport. That's the way we set up Kale's ticket for Christmas so he has as much time home as possible.

I am excited at the prospect of visiting him and being alone for our anniversary for the first time in 10 years. He's excited so his second half won't feel as long as the first half. I just hope the military plane ticket isn't pricey, that could put a crimp in our plans.

No One Told Me....

First I would like to apologize for my foul language in my last two posts. I was typing so fast and furious I didn't even attempt to *** out some of the letters. While I do have a potty mouth, I know when and where it is appropriate to use.

Back to normal now....

No one told me just how hard this really was going to be. I cried last night on the phone with Kale, telling him just how hard it was and how upset I am that it's only 1/4 of the way over. I have been a mess this week. It's pretty bad when I am crying in my van when Gavin Rossdale's Love Remains the Same or Secondhand Serenade's Fall for You comes on the radio. -If you haven't heard either you should check them out, they are really good songs.-

I think my kids are handling this better than I am. I was fine the first couple of months, then school started and I have been home all day bored, just thinking of him. I am not having trouble dealing with the kids or dealing with the house. It's just the loneliness of it. I have not been apart from Kale for more than a month since I was 18, that's 10 years of being together. In February we will have been married for 10 years, he says he's finally going to buy me a big rock. :P But I have to wait until he comes back in June, he wants to be there with me when I pick it out.

I think it's the silence at night that bothers me most. He's been really good about calling me twice a day and emailing me everyday. I am happy when he calls, but I become even more sad when we have to hang up. It was easier for me in the beginning when I was so busy, but it was harder for him. At that time we didn't know that he can use state to state calling cards, which are WAY cheaper than the international ones he was using. I was also always busy and missed his calls often. He will have internet in his house again mid-Oct. and then it will be a little cheaper to talk. And I can talk to him all night long. Since he left my typing has improved, I was pretty good before, but now I am so much better.

In other news I have now lost nearly 15 pounds! I am excited. I am going to start walking to the school and back to pick up the girls on nice days, it's probably a 2-4 mile walk both ways. That will help. The "happy pills" have been helping to keep me away from sweets. I eat only what I need and I have even cut back to two 8oz pepsi's a day. I already drink a lot of water, so that's not a problem. I also started taking a multi vitamin to help with energy.

Well, my weekend is pretty busy. Lilly and Aidan both have parties to attend and on Sunday we are all going to the Renaissance Festival. It's been a beautiful week and it's supposed to continue for the weekend.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

The Rest of the Awful Story...

I know I said I would post this tomorrow, but some people are like me and don't like to wait.
If you haven't read the first half of the story, go down and read it first or you will be confused.


So Monday I am checking Kale's email, this time he asked me to do it. He doesn't have internet at his house and he can't check his personal email on the work computer. So I check it and there is this email about "So and so commented on your picture on Redlightcenter.com". So I am naturally curious so I go to the site, type in Kale's gmail address in the forgotten password space, retrieve it and sign in. I am immediately HORRIFIED BEYOND BELIEF! The first thing I see is a picture of Kale and I together. This picture:




His mom took it when they came to visit him the summer we began dating. It's Kale's favorite picture of the two of us.


The website I find is kind of like a myspace or facebook page, but it's designed for people seeking sexual "release" I guess you would call it. Basically you can be single or a couple seeking other singles or couples to do things with. Or it can just be an online, look at each others nasty pictures and videos. The entire page had been set up as if Kale had done it himself. I know now he didn't, but at the time....not so much.


Again I freak out, worse than the day before, because not only did it sound as if Kale had written the page himself (I will tell you why later) but there were also pictures. Pictures of male genitalia. One of the pictures was actually my husbands, but he took it to send to me (don't know why) and he never did. The other two pictures of genitalia I could tell weren't his which is good, because one of them was completely nasty. I will not describe it for you, but it was dirty, filthy, and it haunts my dreams. That right there was Kale's only saving grace.


He called me about 25 agonizing minutes after I found this page. I had gone from screeching crying, to hyperventilating, to collapsing on the floor in grief. I managed to keep it together when Sophia came downstairs to find out what was wrong and I was lucky Delilah was sleeping. Anyhow, he calls and I am screaming things at him like you would not believe. He is swearing up and down that it wasn't him. All the same things as the time before. He swears on the lives of our children and I feel a little, not much, but a little better. He tells me he and the 1SG are going to go talk to the guy again and they will find out what is going on for me. I tell him I can't believe him, I need to hear it from the 1SG (his boss) when they get back. Otherwise I knew I would always have doubts.


After about another hour of agonizing wait, during which I can't eat and have diarrhea (TMI I know, but at this point I have shared everything else). He calls and puts the 1SG on. He lets me know the guy confessed and is writing a swore statement about all the things he did and why he did them. The guy said he used Kale's pictures because he didn't want his wife to be able to find out he did this. That everyone on the site requires pictures and so he needed some face shots that weren't his own. I felt so much better after talking to 1SG.


Kale gets on the phone and he lets me know he is pressing charges for identity theft. The guy had taken information about us from Kale's Facebook page, what Kale likes, what I like off my page, he found the picture of Kale's penis and used it. He used Kale's webcam to take pictures of his own penis. He found a dirty letter Kale had written for me and used that on there. Just a complete violation of our privacy.


Like K said, Kale was stupid for leaving his passwords unprotected and letting this guy have so much freedom using his computer. But like I told her, I prefer stupid to cheater, I already knew he was stupid. I can live with stupid. Trust me, stuff like this ONLY happens to Kale. He has the worst luck with things obscure and unusual.


Unfortunately Kale can't get him for identity theft because the guy didn't accrue any debt. BUT the commander is freaking pissed (he's the big boss) and is throwing the book at him. Like I said, they are going for demotion and loss of mid-month pay for 6mths.

It still took me a few days to really get over this. I was angry Kale had left such personal stuff out there for anyone to find. I reminded him that if I had actually sent him the nude photos he requested (I never would have) then those would have been plastered all over that smutty site. That really got to him, he was never as upset as when I told him that. He is very protective of me and it would have killed him to have that all over the internet. It really irritated me that his "business" was on there too and that people commented on it and everything. But in the grand scheme of everything having that to deal with is better than having to deal with a husband who is surfing swinger sites.

He is extremely lucky that he was so far away from me when this happened. If he had been here I would have hunted him down and slapped the shit out of him before he even knew what I was angry about. I have a horrible temper, it's hard to get me angry, but look out when I am.

So, everything is back to "normal" at least as normal as it's going to get. I never worried about him being so far away until all of this happened. Even though my heart knows he wouldn't ever do anything my brain is suspicious. I told him he is going to have to reassure me, every day, multiple times a day until I get over this completely.

The guy has to meet with the Commander and 1SG tonight. His ass is fried. It actually kind of worries me that maybe he is one of those freaks who wants to be you, you know take over your life. I hope it really only was that he didn't want his wife to know he was surfing such sites, but damn that's a long way to go to "get off".

So there is my long, horrifying, detailed (probably more details than most of you wanted), ordeal that has preoccupied my last 7 days. And that is why I was MIA.

A Very Bad Week...

I am sorry I went MIA, but I have been dealing with a lot of BS this week. I can finally tell this story because it's 100% OVER. The person who caused this mess is in deep trouble. Article 15 if you know military terms, if not it means he is being demoted and losing half his pay for 6mths.

Why does he deserve such? Because he just about ruined my marriage, could have done worse if I am not the person I am, or if Kale had not been able to get to the bottom of things super quickly.

It started last Friday, I had asked Kale for all of his passwords to all of his emails and such so if I felt like checking them I could. He knows all of mine so we have nothing to hide, and he gave them to me willingly. Plus something happened to someone I know recently crushing my reality about my "perfect family life" being able to go on as "perfect" forever. Let's just say it gave me pause.

Well, I checked his Yahoo, nothing interesting there just normal family stuff. Then I check his Gmail, his sister and his friend Dave are the only ones who usually email him there. I start looking through and I come upon two emails that had been sent out to someone named J.D. and right away I became sick. I opened them and they were from "Kale" to this JD person thanking her for the naked pictures and asking her if she would like anything in return. You can imagine my response.

I began hyperventilating and scrambling to call Kale. A few minutes later he gets online at the library (he had told me he would after work so we could talk). I immediately begin attacking him with questions and he immediately begins denying all allegations. He begs me to believe him, but there in front of me I have the "proof". I show him the emails, he starts to freak out, and says he is going home and calling me right then. I wait for 15 agonizing minutes and he finally calls.

Before I go on with that conversation I will tell you what he did on his way to his house. On his way to his house he used his cell to call the two guys he was allowing to use his computer when he lived in the apartment (he had recently moved into a house). He left them a message saying they had better explain what the bleep they were doing on his email. You see, Kale is a very trusting man he had all of his email passwords saved in his computer and was allowing these two guys full access, unsupervised, to use his laptop. Stupid I know.

He calls me and I am bawling, he begins to break down and cry and swears up and down it wasn't him. He wouldn't do this to me, he loves me, he loves our kids, he just doesn't need anyone else, and for me to please believe him. It's hard for me. He explains how he let these two guys use his computer and just then his cell rings. I can here him yelling at the first guy, interrogating him, he knows nothing. The second guy gets on and I hear a lot of Kale screaming at the guy about how stupid it was he used Kale's email and how I had found it and was so upset. He screams at the guy that he will talk to him later.

He gets back on the phone and explains what happened to me. Apparently this guy, instead of making a fake email, used Kale's to send and receive pictures of some girl he was chatting with online. He said that he didn't want his wife to find out. He thought he had deleted everything. We now know there is more to it than just this, but I will get to it. So Kale is pissed and I am relieved. We talk for quite awhile and by the end of our conversation I am back to normal, feeling better, he is still pissed and is threatening to kick the guy's ass. I try and calm him down, tell him it's not worth jeopardizing his career over it.

He calls me later that night to tell me how PT went. He had his 1SG go with him to keep him in check. He was mad that the guy thought it was no big deal. Kale lunged at him and 1SG had to grab him and hold him back. The guy didn't even show the slightest bit of remorse, until Kale told him how I was hyperventilating and crying, then he looked at the ground the rest of the talk. After Kale left 1SG stayed behind to talk to the guy, even threatened to tell his wife.

So then my weekend went on peacefully. Monday came and my world was shattered once again, at the hands of this guy, and this time it was worse.

I will finish tomorrow.... Just so you know everything is alright with me and my marriage. And that I have 100% proof that my husband did not do the things I thought he did. If I didn't have the proof I would still be questioning him, as maybe some of you might.