Six Years Ago

I lost my sister Margaret. This will be a redundant post, every August 25th, for as long as I blog. She was truly one of the most beautiful people ever! Yes, she could drive you absolutely crazy too, but who doesn't?

Tiny and petite with a laugh that at times could seriously hurt your ears. She was a lover of dancing and having fun in any sense of the word. Although she had a heart condition her whole life, she was always game to do anything. Roller coasters? Check! Dancing until you were about to collapse? Check! Bike riding? Check (she did go slower than most, but she stuck with it). She was not a great cook, and an even worse baker. We all cringed at Christmas time when she would announce all the things she was going to bake. Her list of 10 or more things would dwindle to one or two after the recipes didn't quite work out, or they got a bit more done than she intended. Funny although she wasn't a great cook, she taught me how to make a wonderful lasagna, the best white cream gravy ever, and she taught Becky her stir-fry secrets.

She was a lover of animals, all of them, but especially dogs and cats. She would have saved them all if she could. Housework was not her thing but we all knew that. Her closet often looked as if a volcano had erupted in it, but that's part of who she was.

Hard to believe that at noon, six years ago, my sweet and beautiful sister, one of my very best friends, gave up her lifelong fight with heart issues and succumbed to it all. She was a fighter to the end and is missed so very much by each and every one of us.

Back To School, Lonely Littles and A New Assignment

My 2nd Grader!!!




Bus buddies!


Off she goes!




Tuesday began the start of yet another school year for Kori. She is now a proud 2nd grader. I can't believe it! She decided this year to ride the bus with her buddies from the neighborhood. Huh? What kid doesn't want their mom to take them and pick them up? Her! So I relented and let her ride with her friends. She LOVES it! Loves everything about it. We'll see if that's the case when she has to ride the bus in high school.

The little girls are missing their big sister, big time! The 1st day they were sleeping when I walked her to the bus stop. When they got up they asked 1,459,234 time where Kori was and when was she coming home. The 2nd day they walked with us. Alexis and Morgan burst into tears when Kori was getting on the bus. They sobbed all the way back home, "Kori come back". They are so happy to see her in the afternoon when she gets home.

Jason has a new assignment! No more over-night shift!! Woo hoo! He was asked to take over as supervisor of one of our Tactical Response Squads. Like SWAT I suppose you'd say. The hours aren't great, but we will survive. There are pro's and con's but we'll make it through together, we always do. I am glad he will be here sleeping with me at night again. Let the snoring commence! Tonight is his last night of working over-night. He is going to miss his guys that work for him now, but is ready for the new assignment as well.

So that's it for us! We're looking forward to a great weekend! Jason is off and the weather is going to be nice, what to do, what to do???

Dear Children

Try as you may, you did not succeed in driving me stark raving crazy today. It was a valiant effort that began around one a.m. when Kamryn woke up from a slumber screaming for me to open her ice cream. After some hard earned convincing on my part, she finally understood it was time for sleeping and the frozen treats would have to wait.

Mother Nature decided to toy with my emotions as well and about 30-minutes after settling Kamryn back in she fired up some storms, which we all know Alexis HATES! So I get her calmed down only to see Morgan sitting up in her bed now. She looked at me and proclaimed, "Oh I'm peeing" and she did. All over her jammies and sheets, oh and the pillow too. AWESOME!

After getting her cleaned up and fresh sheets and blankies back on the bed. Getting her a new pillow everyone was once again quiet.

Until about 3:30 or so when more storms blew in. AWESOME again! I finally plopped down in the floor of their bedroom so they would go to sleep and hopefully stay that way.

The morning came with Morgan grumping about something trivial (so trivial I can't even remember what it was about). I informed all of my beautiful children that I was tired and grumpy and not particularly in the mood for silliness today. They must have heard the exact opposite of what I said. The day was a wreck. Fighting, fussing, whining, crying, screaming, yelling, ignoring me.

Thankfully around 2:15 my knight in shining armour (okay it was just Jason in a t-shirt and shorts, but whatever) arrived to save me. Or so I thought. He sat for a minute and then proceeded to start putting on shoes and socks. Wait, where are you going I asked? I have a meeting at 3, I won't be gone long. No matter how much I begged and pleaded not to leave me alone with the beasts, I mean our beautiful daughters, he did just that.

To escape some bickering/whining, I retreated to the quiet of my bedroom to "sort some laundry". That was code for hide and hope no one found me. I sat on my bed and watched some TV for a while alone. Thankfully true to his word my knight wasn't gone too long.

So anyway, to my children, you'll have to rearm and try again tomorrow. Or not, I am okay with that. I am going to do some house work, I think, so beware, I might attack back.

Love,

Your Frazzled Mother

Manwich

Tonight for dinner I made Manwich. Not my favorite, but it is quick and easy. Jason needed something to take to work that could be whipped up quick and ready to go before he left for softball. So Manwich was the choice. The girls and I had lunch out with my mom today after we went to the orchard to get some peaches. (Oh they are soooooooo delish! -- Tomorrow I'll be making a homemade peach cobbler -- my first!)

So anyway the girls ate late. I kept asking if they were ready to eat and kept getting "NO" X 4. So finally they decided it was dinner time. Everyone ate an entire sandwich and asked for more. I also gave them sliced up fresh peaches and nectarines and some Sun Chips. So after asking for more Morgan comes running up to me and states without hesitation, "Mommy I need more man sandwich!" I thought I would die. I was eating a tuna fish sandwich (I just wasn't feeling the Manwich) and it about came shooting out my nose. Kori started busting up too, after clarifying that she had indeed heard the request for a "man sandwich" as well. It was too funny!!! What made it even funnier was the fact that they had eaten the last of the hamburger buns so I used up the last of the hot dog buns left over from lunch a couple of days ago. I figured they would be easier to hold/keep together than regular bread. So my daughter asked for a "man sandwich" which was going to be served on a, quoting my mother here, a weiner holder!!!! Oh my stars, are you kidding me???? My life some days is just comical!

Now mind you it came from the kid that went the entire morning and afternoon without underwear under her skort. This morning we were getting ready to go to the orchard with my mom. The girls are big on getting dressed themselves lately, which is fine. Every morning they take off their undies (bad habit from the "take off your pull-ups" days). I reiterate every morning for them to leave the undies on, but someone always seems to take theirs off. I asked even if everyone had them on and got a resounding "YES" X3.

So imagine the chuckle I got this afternoon after we returned from our orchard journey to hear Morgan exclaim from the bathroom "Oh no! Mommy I lost my underwear, I can't find them!" So after some giggling and such I located them, still inside her pajama bottoms.

These kids are so funny sometimes. I mean seriously, I couldn't make some of this up if I wanted too. A man sandwich!!!! Tomorrow I'm going to tone it down