So does anybody still follow this blog? I finally took the time to catch up with my bloggy friends and it was wonderful to see what has been going on with everyone and made me realize it has been way to long since I posted an update on our little family of four. I like to blog because it is very helpful to make a photo book at the end of the year. So if I bore you with all of the details please accept my apology but I need to document it all for our end of the year family photo book :)
Wrote the below memories in September 2009...
So last time I posted was July 4th....wow where has the time gone. This summer was such a blurr and before I knew it 2009 was over. So I will attempt to remember it all. Just after we returned from our trip to Texas in June 2009, we put our house on the market and it sold for full asking price in a week, such a blessing. Just after July 4th, Ricky had to report to his new job in Louisiana and the girls and I made the trip with him to house hunt. This trip was very stressful as we did not expect housing to be as expensive as it is. Needless to say our dollar did not stretch as far in Louisiana. So we ended up signing a contract on a house still under construction in Zachary, LA, which is a very small town. At the time I remember being very upset having to live so differently than I was used to. Zachary has a few fast food restaurants and a Wal-Mart, we must drive 25 minutes to Baton Rouge for anything else.
After the girls and I got back to Omaha my wonderful father-in-law stayed with the girls and I to help out. Just before we left for Louisiana, Ricky called me to let me know there was a problem with the house in LA. He felt that I would not like the kitchen now that the cabinetry was in.
On July 24th, the movers loaded all of our belongings in Omaha. It was a bitter sweet goodbye to a place that I grew to love. When me moved to Omaha it definitely was not love a first sight. The thought of living SO far away from my Mama broke my heart and the winter was long. But just before we found out Ricky was being transferred, we finally had the opportunity to go back to Texas to visit, this was home or I so I thought. During that trip I realized that I did not miss Texas at all, I just longed for my old life, family, friends, etc. And I realized that I LOVED Omaha, Nebraska and I was very sad to leave. I actually acclimated to the winter very quickly, I loved the experiences of seasons, the cooler weather, wonderful neighbors, and the area we lived was wonderful. We could not have asked for a better place to raise our kids. When we first moved to Omaha there were so many things that were just "weird" to me but looking back I wish I would have embraced it from the beginning. Because all of my "weirds" make me laugh so hard now. For example I could not believe Pop or Fizzy Pop was equivalent to Coke, because in Texas everything is a Coke. And the idea of this city loving girl having to walk through an actual field to pick a pumpkin off a vine blew my mind. I did not know pumpkins has stickers. In Houston the pumpkins were already picked and laying in a nice clean field waiting on me. And winter clothes were a foreign concept to me, now I long for sweaters, scarfs, cute fall jackets and jeans. So this gives you an idea of some of the silly things I let bother me. Such an amazing life lesson.
So after the house was loaded my father-in-law loaded a small U-Haul full of cherished items I refuse to send with the movers, me, the girls, two dogs and a cat and drove us for nearly 18 hours to Louisiana. Upon arrival Ricky took me to see the house we signed a contract on and he was right I did not like the kitchen. It turned out to be only three feet wide. If you were standing at the stove top you could to do a little spin and you would be at the sink...not for me. I am not a cook but as all mommies know you spend most of your time in the kitchen, I could just feel the stress thinking about it. So we started searching for another house immediately. Signed a contract on a new build and lived in a temporary apartment for six weeks. During this time life became even more of a blurr. I was in shock of where I was living and found myself having to constantly remind myself of our families many blessing. I decided to not move any furniture to the apartment because this would mean moving twice and considering Ricky's work schedule this would be put on my shoulders. So we moved an Ikea chair, TV, toys and blow up mattresses to the apartment. It felt like camping out everyday....while it was fun for the girls it made for some habits that we are having to break now. Like they thought the air mattresses made great trampolines and Kaylyn was always my good sleeper. But not having the confinement of her room and toddler bed well that went out the door. Now bed time is a battle with her and I struggle with keeping her in her bed...ugghh.
August was a tough month for me....I struggled with the move, loss my grandfather and had to put my 16 year old dog down.
On August 14th, my dear PawPaw lost his battle with emphysema and COPD. He had suffered with the disease for more years than I can remember. His passing was something that our family had been prepared for, for many years, but it was still very sad to say goodbye. I have so many cherished memories of my Pawpaw and I think I will always miss him. I was the oldest grandchild and most of my life my brother and I were the only grandchildren that lived close by. I was very close to my Pawpaw and saw him in a way that most did not. He was a very grumpy man and he butted heads with many people over the years. But at 34 I still looked up to my Pawpaw just as I did as a little girl. As I grew I learned who he was as a man but to me he was my loving Pawpaw. As a little girl he told the grand kids spooky stories and he loved to sing and tell jokes. He did wood work and I remember "building" things with his scrap wood. My name is Heather Renee' and he always called me Heffer Nae and only he could call me that. Every time I saw him he would smile his wonderful smile and give me a big hug and say hey Heffer Nae. When I was a little girl he would hide behind the front door to scare me when I would go to their house to visit. I know scare a kid but you had to know him, it was all in fun. But I caught him one time and I told him "I seen you hine (behind) that door". I must have been very young and until the day he died he still told me "I seen you hine that door Heffer Nae". I could go on forever with my memories of him but I am going to share one final one. My grandfather always drank beer growing up and he would always asks the grand kids to get him a beer from the refrigerator and he would give us a quarter or two for doing so. I know that sounds horrible, but truth is my grandfather in my adult opinion did have a drinking problem but I did not live his young life and I think as many people did from him generation had many hardships and drank. So back to the memory as kids we did not care about the beer but wanted the quarters. Once, I became a mommy he began giving my daughter's quarters just as he did me when I was a little girl. No they did not get him beer's he just gave them to the girls. The memory is special I guess because the last day I was able to carry on a conversation with him I heard my treasured "hey Heffer Nae" and as he faded he wanted to give my girls quarters. They took them and I put them away and will always cherish them. Loosing him was hard and I sit here crying as I relive it but he is better now. It was also hard watching my grandmother losing him I think she was in shock. I am just as close to my grandmother and I was worried about how she would go on without him. But remarkably she is doing much better than I expected. My grandparents were married for 62 years I think...that is a lifetime. I hope I will be blessed to be married for that long.
Just before we moved into our new house we had to make the decision to put my 16 year old dachshund to sleep. Ace, he had a great life. Ace, was given to me for my 19th birthday from my high school boy friend, which was not my hubby. Ace had been through SO much of the hard parts of my young life with me and I really struggled with saying goodbye to him. Ricky used to tell people the dog was part of the "package" but honestly he too loved Ace. Over his lifetime Ace had four slipped disks in his back and Ricky being the wonderful man he is paid for each and every surgery. He used to joke and say if you opened Ace up he would be made of gold. I loved that Ricky loved me so much that he made sure my dog was taken care of. Now obviously this was all prior to kids. After kids while he was still very much my oldest baby, but he became a dog. As he aged he had many problems, arthritis, dogie version of dementia which lead to many other problems. We treated them as long as we as a family could but it became very stressful. We found a wonderful vet here in Louisiana and she told us all the medical reasons it was okay to make the decisions. She was wonderful and even called me a week later to check on me.
So on August 31st, we closed on our new house and it has been a whirl wind every since. On move in day the movers struggled with getting us in. We lost 1300 square feet and had WAY too much stuff for this house. I was begging family to take stuff. It has been a month now and there is still clutter but I am rid of all items that we don't need. I am waiting on new furniture to be delivered and I need to start working on drapes and decor so it will feel homier. I still don't like living where we do but I remind myself of the lesson I learned in Omaha. Our family is so blessed, we are all healthy and together and have all the necessities of life.
Continued January 1, 2010...
So let's see I will follow up with my last post. The girls have settled in nicely over the last couple of months. They got new beds shortly after we moved in and they now share a room. It took a while to get used to the change but they are sleeping fairly well and their relationship is absolutely beautiful. In the past they had separate bed rooms and more then once during the day I would hear Abba shouting at Kaylyn to get out of her room or to quit touching her things. Our house in Louisiana is three bedroom so they are sharing one bedroom and the other is set up as a play room. Now they play wonderfully together and love sleeping in the same room. I recently thought maybe we had made the wrong choice to put them in the same room because Kaylyn sleeps soundly through the night and Abba wakes up frequently. I talked to Abba about separating their beds and she was upset at the taught of it. So they are still sleeping in the same room and I am excited to see their sisterly bond grow.
On September 29th, Kaylyn turned 3 and she immediately began speech. The public school in Zachary accepted her evaluation from Omaha and she is doing wonderfully. A Speech teacher comes to our house weekly. She is a kind young woman and Kaylyn adores her "play time" with Ms. Kellie. The Speech Pathologist that evaluated Kaylyn believes she is nearly a full year behind in her speech. With her biggest problem being not willingly using her words. She can copy almost anything we say but chooses to not use the words on her own. So Ms. Kelly is helping us find ways to engage Kaylyn and get her to join in on conversations. Kaylyn is a loud child and if she is awake noise is pretty much coming out of her mouth. So since she began speech she is engaging in conversation more and as I have always suspected she is going to be a serious chatter box. But she is still struggling. For instance with her potty training she can use the potty but is only half successful. She will come to me to tell me she needs to go but just gives me this look. I know the look and I can usually help her but all the while I explain to her to use her words. It is slow progress but we will eventually get there.
October 3rd, we headed to Texas to celebrate Kaylyn's 3rd birthday with friends from our old playgroup. I had arranged a company to coordinate a Princess Tea Party. I was adorable and fun was had by all. There was princess dress up for the girls and knight suites for the boys. They got to wear make-up and make a craft. Tea time was adorable they drank pink lemonade in real china tea cups and had lunch on princess plates with real silver utensils. They listened to a short song by the princesses teaching them about manners and etiquette before they began. All was forgotten...lunch was enjoyed with fingers but they were very careful with their tea cups. Kaylyn had a wonderful time but we would not know it looking at the pictures. Once her lip gloss was applied she refused to smile in fear should would mess it up. It was too funny but after she ate and had cake she was all smiles. She had a day fit for a Princess and it was spent with her special friends.
October, 19, 2009, I left for Las Vegas, to be in one of my best friends wedding. It was the first time I have ever spent the night away from the girls. I was very nervous but when I landed in Vegas I was fine. This was the first time I had been to Vegas and let me tell you I felt old there. My partying days have long since been over. I really did not see much because I was very busy helping Wendy with her wedding. But I did sneak away after the ceremony to the M & M store to pick up a few gifts for the girls. The wedding was beautiful and I was truly honored to stand beside her on her special day.
October 28, 2009, Ricky and I decided that Miss Abba needed to get a bigger bike. Her knees were nearly hitting the handel bars on her bike, but she was convienced that her bike was perfect. Perfect because it was purple with little white kitties on it. So we set out to find the same brand bike just in a bigger size. Well as it turned out that was last years model. We did however find the same brand in the same purple color BUT it had butterflies on it. The guy at the bike shop tried to convience her that butterflies would be faster than kitties, but she was not buying it. But once we put her on it off she went and willingly passed her smaller bike down to Kaylyn. Now Kaylyn was VERY ready to move up to a big girl bike but she is so little that even a 12" bike is too tall. We had to have the seat cut down so that it could be adjusted super low. It is still to big but she loves it. Kaylyn loves to feel like she is a big kid and this bike makes her feel very big....she is so proud of herself.
So let's see now for the holidays. For Thanksgiving the girls and I went to Texas to spend it with my family at my grandmas house. Growing up our family always had Thanksgiving at my MawMaw and PawPaw's house but once my PawPaw got really sick my grandma did not get to cook. She said she wanted to have Thanksgiving at her house just one more time, she has relized that it is too much for her to do alone. So I went down a couple of days early to help out where should would let me, and it was wonderful to spend Thanksgiving there. And I was VERY excited to see my girls finally open up and get to know my family. They have always been very shy and rarely let any of my aunts or uncles hold them or play with them. But this visit was totally different and I really enjoyed watching them interact with everyone. The girls also got to see some of their friends and they played for hours. Wheee...I am tired thinking about all of this again. Now for Christmas...the girls and I headed to my brothers house the week before Christmas to spend time with him and his girl friend and daughter Hannah, the girls Nannie (my mom) and PopPop. I was really happy to be able to see them, as last year we lived too far away and did not get to spend the holiday's with family. Once again my girls really took the opportunity to get to know and interact with my brother. They always like him but were always a little shy. I loved watching them develope a wonderful relationship with him this trip. The girls were very spoiled with gifts by all. On this same trip I learned that my brother was going to propose to his girlfriend, which I was very happy to hear. She is a very sweet girl and has a beautiful daughter who I adore, as do the girls. A couple of days after Christmas I got the call from my brother, he said "Well I did it and she said yes" Yippieee!!! We cannot wait for Amanda and Hannah to officially join our family.
If you are wondering why daddy does not make any of the trips with us, well in Louisiana he works a lot, so he does not get much free time. BUT he was actually able to take and entire 9 days off for Christmas. It was wonderful to have him home all to ourselves. We really did not do anything special but enjoy each other. The girls loved having him home as did I. On Christmas Eve we let the girls each open a gift. Which was pajamas, which their daddy does not like the idea of. He thinks they should get to open one toy and the pj's. Ricky struggles with surprises, he is like a child and cannot wait to give presents out. When he grew up his family opened presents from their parents on Christmas Eve and Santa presents on Christmas Day. My family spent Christmas Eve with my extended family and opened gifts from our parents and Santa on Christmas Day. So we are still trying to decide where to meet in the middle. But we will keep adjusting until we find the way for our family.
Christmas day the girls had a wonderful day. Ricky and I have always had a joke between each other that someday Abba would show some excitement on Christmas day. Her first Christmas she was only 18 months and really had no idea what was going on, but a new parents Ricky and I were over joyed. The next year was the same no super excitement and last year well now we had two baby girls and the same thing neither of them were excited. But Ricky and I once again joked that this year was going to be the year. So you can imagaie our excitement to see to super excited little girls jumping around as they opened all that their little hearts desired. Abba must have thanked us and Santa a million times. So of course Ricky and I exchanged high-fives and said woohoo it only took 4 years. LOL we felt like kids ourself :) Santa brought Abba a Karoke machine and Kaylyn a American Girl Bitty Baby and our family Rock Band.
We were able to bring in 2010 with daddy at home. He bought the girls some smoke bombs, sparklers and some of those little pop things you through on the ground. The girls like to see fireworks from a distance but nothing loud up close. I like to watch fire works but want no part of lighting them or any of that. So the thought of the girls holding sparklers makes me cringe but daddy is determined that they grow up wanting to try new things and not fear everything like I do. So with caution he helped them. Abba is like me afraid of her own shadow and Kaylyn she is always ready to take on anything without fear. She really made me nervous...was so glad when that was over. Kaylyn wanted to go to sleep around 11pm and Abba stayed up with us to watch the ball drop. And in an instance 2009 was over.
So I can now say that I have grown used to where we live. I do not like it but I count my blessing and consider it another stepping stone in life. We will not be here forever so I am doing my best to make the best of it. But the girls and I have been spending as much time as possible in Texas. Ricky works a lot so every chance we get it seems we have headed to Texas. I have promised myself that I would take every opportunity to spend time with my family and friends, because who knows when, where or how far Ricky's job might take us next. I have really enjoyed getting a small portion of my old life back.
So if you are still reading this you must be my mom or Ricky's mom or NanaK. If anyone else is still ready thank you for making your way through my ramblings. I needed to complete this journaling for the girls yearly photo book. But I do promise to post regularly in 2010 and they will be much shorter posts :)
Lots of Love,
Heather
