Blessings

I am so thankful for my kids. My son is just awesome to me and I am so proud of him. He's becoming older and wiser with each passing year and I like having talks with him about whatever is on his mind. Kate is talking a LOT and she is beginning to express herself really well and it's exciting to see my kids becoming more independent. Kaben questions most things in life and I hate having to explain how crooked this world is. Anyway, I am real proud when he starts our conversation a few days ago like this...

"Mom, since we know where we are going after we die, we don't need to be afraid of death."

Amen to that.

Catchin up on the last, oh, 2 months?

We were without power for a week or so after the storm, so I didn't get to blog to mention that we all survived. It's silly to tell that now since it is obvious by the post, so I'll move on. I will only mention that we had minimal damage with no injury and we are very thankful.

So instead of having to repair an impaled roof from Ike, we had to install an entire HVAC system in the house whose failure had nothing to do with hurricanes. That was fun! And..six thousand dollars..ugh. But we have a blasting system now that will roast your socks off in the winter and freeze your icicle nose off in the summer. Thank the Good Lord for electricity and central a/c and heat! What a blessing, I tell ya. I am quite acclimated to the comforts these things provide.

Kate turned three. November 26th my baby turned three. I am not the least bit sad about it; rather thankful actually since three is closer to 4, etc. I really enjoy the ages where you can have intelligent conversation instead of just a one-sided relationship based on them whining and us catering to their every need and getting little to no payback for time and energy devoted!

I scolded her for the condition of her room the other day and asked her to pick up the mess. She waltzed back into the room where I was and said she was finished. I told her there was no way, but she insisted and led me back to her room. I looked in aggravation at the pile of toys she had stacked on top of her dresser and glanced back at her with raised eyebrows and she smiles and cuts her eyes to me and says, "Well, what do you think?"

A little about Kate:
She loves to eat at "Pas Amigos" or "Chi-a-li's" (say it fast)
She still says "Runny Babbit" on accident.
She loves anything in pink.
She hates having her temperature taken; even under the arm is a struggle.
She likes to sleep in her brother's bed.
She is a free spirit who marches to the beat of her own drum (total opposite of her structured brother)
She is in a bit of a challenging stage!

Ike is Here

Well, this afternoon the average breeze that we feel began to pick up a notch, but it was very comfortable outside. At 6 pm, we loaded up the kids to go to the Redbox to grab some movies for "the long haul" tonight. After we got home, we hooked up the 110 a/c unit to the room we planned to camp out in. By 7, quite a few of our neighbors were outside, so we chatted with them until we began to stumble from the high winds that were definitely in effect.

It's not quite 8 pm yet, but I'm a little anxious to see this huge storm play out. Oh Lord, please don't let those trees fall! I'll check in later...

My Little Angels

On a whim, I decided when I got home from work last Friday that I would go to Houston Garden Center to find a plant for the den. I asked Kate if she wanted to go shopping with mommy and I received an adamant confirmation, as usual. (I love it that my girl likes to shop!) En route to the plant store 30 miles away, Kate tells me the following:

"Mom, I hab no boobies."

To which I reply, "Well, baby, you will get boobies when you get a little older."

"I hab no boobies!"

"I know, Kate, but one day you will."

"You have big ones and I have little ones."

She's 2 and a half and already comparing notes with other women...

A Selfish Post

This post is all about me. I know, how selfish!


I am: a work in progress

I think: that sports stars and celebrities should not be paid more than a firefighter or soldier

I know: I am capable of much more

I want: to quit work and go back to school

I have: 2 beautiful children

I wish: I had more musical talent

I hate: liars

I miss: the days when I had no responsibilities

I fear: how I will die and if my kids will be left motherless

I feel: like I need a vacation

I hear: my son's computer game

I smell: my perfume

I crave: pizza, brownies and chinese food

I search: for ways to avoid cooking

I wonder: why common sense isn't very popular

I regret: making an ugly comment years ago, dating some people I dated

I love: my husband and my kids (how original!)

I ache: for children who never get a fighting chance

I care: about my children's salvation and futures

I always: overanalyze, but I've learned to control it

I am not: shallow

I believe: in one true God

I dance: when I go out with Kenneth!

I sing: karaoke when I get a chance

I cry: during sappy movies

I don’t always: say the appropriate thing

I fight: for time with my family

I write: sloppy a lot

I win: when I agree to disagree

I lose: when I go to Louisiana

I never: like to commit to anything extracurricular

I confuse: myself and others

I listen: half of the time

I can usually be found: shopping for home stuff or electronics

I am scared: of vomiting or my kids' vomit

I am happy about: my husband's successful back surgery and quick recovery

For the love of felines!

If you want to know how my decision making affects my life, please read on.

I have a son who adores cats. He has wanted a cat for as long as I can remember. The following two stories are based on this fact. I would like to preface the following accounts by mentioning that my idea of having a pet cat is to have a food and water bowl outside and to make sure those are filled each day. Nothing more. NOTHING more.

Bad Decision #1 (and subsequent bad mini-decisions): A few months back, Kenneth and I went into a gun store and had the kids with us. (I realize this might sound questionable.) Anyway, we were picking up a rifle that was having some work done on it. As we were leaving, a teeny tiny kitten came out of some bushes and was meowing like crazy. It really was cute, but aren't most things in the mini-version? Just think about those mini pecan pies and travel size items. At first sight you think, oh my goodness, that tiny V05 hair spray is just darling! (Maybe that's just me and as you see, I am chasing a rabbit in this paragraph.) So, in an attempt to be the great mom, I looked at Kenneth and asked if we could take the pint-sized, if that, kitten home. He catered to Kaben and I's "puppy dog" look. We got it home and disaster struck. The thing couldn't even eat solid food. It had to be bottlefed every 3 hours! Did I mention every 3 hours? Well, as a working mom and also one that likes to sleep 10 hours at a stretch, this would not work for us (me - the one who would actually have to do it). So, I had to find a shelter to take it until it could eat solid food. I was able to find a foster mom - these are the terms that animal lover's use - for the kitten. The woman called me a week later to tell me that the kitten was doing well and I asked her when I could pick up the cat. She replied by saying that probably in another week would be a good time but mentioned that she had become quite fond of the kitten and that I would have to pay an "adoption fee" to get it back. LOL Long story short, since the kitten was technically mine, I avoided that fee. So, the next week I met the lady at a gas station over near my work and took the thing home. Kaben was thrilled! Well, here's the next issue..the cat was domesticated at this point, so we kept it in the house. What made this fun is that Kate and I are allergic to cats. Kate is even more sensitive than I. To sum it up, I had to call the foster mom to arrange for a new home for the kitten and I had to get Kate to the doctor for her to tell me that Kate will need to do two types of breathing treatments 3x a day. Good grief.

Bad Decision #2 (and subsequent bad mini-decisions): It's all I heard about, I want a cat, I miss the kitten, where is the kitten now, kitten, cat, cat, kitten - from both kids.

Fast forward a couple of months.

We were at some friends house swimming and they told us of two kittens that had come up and now live in their barn. They were adorable and they had named them Tom and Jerry. I asked them if they wanted to get rid of them, but unfortunately they were very attached to them. They told us of a shelter down the road that took care of animals and adopted them out and stated that a new litter of kittens had come in but weren't quite ready yet to be adopted.

Fast forward a week.

I call the shelter from work and arrange to meet the lady to see about adopting 2 kittens. They were going to be outside cats and needed a playmate I figured. She agreed to meet me at 5:30 and so it was. I noticed that some of the kittens looked a little raggedy. They were all wild and needed to be played with to settle them down. Anyway, I picked what I felt were the cutest 2 kittens, paid $50, signed my life away on adoption papers, and went 15 miles home with two wild kittens in tow.

And here's where the fun began...

After the first few days of the family playing with the kittens as much as possible to overcome their "fight or flight" tendencies, I developed 3 distinct itchy spots on my arms. You guessed it - ringworm. I had to call the shelter to see about some medication. I had to pick up Turbinafine tablets on the way home from work. These tablets had to be crushed and added to the kitten's food twice a day. (This is already too much work for me.) I managed to do this for about a week after having to go to the shelter to get more since I was only provided essentially enough for one of the kittens. Anyway, I had to keep the kids off the back porch since that area was contaminated with ringworm spores for the time being. After treatment, and when I noticed some of the hair was beginning to grow back in the places where it had fallen out on one of the kitten's face, I decided the kittens were going to have to get off the porch so I could bleach the entire area. I did this last weekend. I bleached every inch of the back porch and sprayed Barbicide all over the patio furniture. We are finally back to normal and my ringworm has just about healed, but I am still not over it - the trauma I caused myself.

Had to do it!

After reading Xandra's post and seeing that she read two other's posts with the personality test, hey, I got a heightened interest in seeing what category I represent. Xandra, if you're reading, get ready:

Kellye, you are somewhat left-hemisphere dominant and show a preference for visual learning, although not extreme in either characteristic. You probably tend to do most things in moderation, but not always.

Your left-hemisphere dominance implies that your learning style is organized and structured, detail oriented and logical. Your visual preference, though, has you seeking stimulation and multiple data. Such an outlook can overwhelm structure and logic and create an almost continuous state of uncertainty and agitation. You may well suffer a feeling of continually trying to "catch up" with yourself.

Your tendency to be organized and logical and attend to details is reasonably well-established which should afford you success regardless of your chosen field of endeavor. You can "size up" situations and take in information rapidly. However, you must then subject that data to being classified and organized which causes you to "lose touch" with the immediacy of the problem.

Your logical and methodical nature hamper you in this regard though in the long run it may work to your advantage since you "learn from experience" and can go through the process more rapidly on subsequent occasions.

You remain predominantly functional in your orientation and practical. Abstraction and theory are secondary to application. In keeping with this, you focus on details until they manifest themselves in a unique pattern and only then work with the "larger whole."

With regards to your career choices, you have a mentality that would be good as a scientist, coach, athlete, design consultant, or an engineering technician. You can "see where you want to go" and even be able to "tell yourself," but find that you are "fighting yourself" at the darndest times.


LOL! Isn't this a riot!