Category: Family Stuff

Jun 21

The One About the Body

I must say that I loved last last summer; I’d lost a bunch of weight thanks to not being in an office all day (and I started smoking, that helped, but was a poor decision).

This year…is different. I am saggy and flabby thanks to working an office job again and eating way more than I should, and carrying around 30lbs of quitting smoking weight. My clothes don’t fit and I feel gross. I bought a swimsuit from Victoria Secret only to realize that the $48 only covered the top; so, right before we left for the pool, I slid (oh who are we kidding, maneuvered) into bottoms from last year that happened to match. And let me tell you, the back isn’t looking like it was last year, and so the bottoms were tight….too tight. I so didn’t want to go to the stupid water park and be all fat, but whatever, suck it up, I need a tan.

That isn’t it, y’all. You have to click here to read the rest!

Jun 20

Mother Daughter Talks

(Written in February, 2014)

The other day I found out about some mean girl stuff that was going on and got to have a long talk with The Oldest One, who turns 10 in April. She’s growing so fast. Always a wise old soul, she’s been a breeze since she was born, aside from being a rough baby. In ways, she has raised me more than I have raised her. Quick to forgive and never without a smile, she’s a parent’s dream.

She’s also incredibly faithful, and her thirst for more of God always takes me off guard. Baptized at 9 this year after years of asking me, she is serious in her faith and rarely waivers.

She’s also every bit of a people pleaser, which worried me as she grew and the other day, proved that I wasn’t very off in my concern that, although she is incredibly strong, her desire to please may cause issues down the road with peer pressure.

That isn’t it, y’all. You have to click here to read the rest!

Feb 15

Valentine’s Day

Happy Valentine’s Day, y’all! It’s been a crazy week, with the jerky polar vortex and farty new-ish dog and 20+ inches of snow (that was yesterday, today it’s 52 degrees outside, so that’s a nice runny mess). To add, Hubbin went out of town right before the storm hit, and to be nice, he went out and got stuff to stock the cabinets for me. And he totally proved that he listens to me, because the previous few days, I’d done nothing but complain about how there was nothing at all to snack on. So, he went and got me snacks. Awesome.

Except by that night, we’d eaten all the normal food, so snack food was all that was left. We finally dug ourselves out today and went out for real food and then off to the grocery store.

Today was simple; Hubbin and I don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day. We usually have a decent meal together (today we took The Oldest One with us to our Valentine Lunch), but don’t exchange gifts. Over years of being on support sites, accompanied with talking to others, Valentine’s Day took on a different shape to me. I am extraordinarily blessed with a wonderful husband who puts God at the forefront of our marriage and, over the last year, has really taken our marriage into a whole new world. The last year has been better than ever, but even before that, we didn’t put much stock in Valentine’s Day.

That isn’t it, y’all. You have to click here to read the rest!

Sep 09

My Ashley

I wrote this a couple of weeks ago but had to wait until we were all emotionally stable enough to post it. 😉

I was thirteen when my sister told us she was pregnant. I loved my big sister so much, and I watched her struggle through a pregnancy that was both physically difficult and emotionally impossible. My already strong sister transformed into from a scared teenage girl into an even stronger woman, right before my eyes.

I remember feeling that baby kick and being in awe of the miracle growing inside of her. Morning sickness was an understatement; she had hyperemesis so severely that she was frequently hospitalized for dehydration. And then it was time. Without a drop of pain reliever, I watched her deliver my niece. She was this beautiful child, and I knew at that moment, life as we knew it was forever changed.

20130909-172816.jpgAshley was a beautiful, easy child. She was friendly and easy going, and I watched her that first summer while my sister worked. We played dress up while I took pictures and I loved snuggling her.

That isn’t it, y’all. You have to click here to read the rest!

Apr 09

This Weekend!

Hubbin and I met when The Oldest One was 2, so we never had that honeymoon period. We’ve never been on a trip without kids (we actually don’t vacation much and are trying to change that). In fact, we married on a Saturday, and Sunday evening I left on a business trip with my boss at the time (female), and Hubbin left to go back to West Virginia, which is where he worked for fourteen long months, part before we married and part after.

Funny side story, since my boss and I were both females, when we traveled, we roomed together. Sunday, when we were checking into the hotel, the front desk manager remarked on my wedding ring and said “Wow, that really is a stunning ring!”, to which I replied “Thanks!! I just got married yesterday!”

It wasn’t until later that I realized she probably was taken off guard at the two chicks checking into a room together the day after my wedding. Perhaps if it had been a business trip to California, maybe we’d have gotten a free bottle of champagne or something, but alas, we were also in West Virginia, so instead we got wide eyes and a “Ahhhh….uh, congratulations.”

That isn’t it, y’all. You have to click here to read the rest!

Apr 02

Change

I look at Facebook and see folks on there that post a lot of the same things. People are fake, no one cares about you but yourself, people don’t mind their own business, there’s drama every where they turn.

And as I read through my newsfeed, I see the stuff that’s shared. You know what it is, you’ve seen it. It’s hard when you’re used to a lifestyle to see that the common denominator is…well, you. My past life (and by that, I mean 10 years ago), was much different than my current life in that aspect. I think I recognize that some a lot of times, I’m the problem, not the solution.

I remember complaining to my mother once that I had a college professor that made super inappropriate, embarrassing comments about my chest in the middle of lecture, and it happened weekly. My mother would gently say “Perhaps you could dress differently.”

That isn’t it, y’all. You have to click here to read the rest!