Alright... I tried to come back and blog like I used to and keep everyone up to date on our family. It isn't working.
Having three kids sucks so much energy out of me and what energy is left, is spent on trying to remember what I was planning on doing next. And chances are, I will only remember what I was going to do next just after I finally lay down for the night only delaying that much needed sleep even more.
Some people call it pregnancy brain but what do we call it when there is no longer a life form growing in your belly but rather in your home?
So... a quick update.
Summer has been a ton of fun so far.
Jamie, Caleb, Pops and Colin all took an 8 day trip to Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Mt Rushmore and a million other places along the way. They made some amazing memories and saw some places that some people never see in a lifetime.
The girls and I stayed home so that they could make this trip with less bathroom breaks, whining, screaming and tantrums.
And I wasn't sure how the girls would handle it either.
Caleb then set off for a 10 day excursion to Boy Scout camp. That was hard. I mean, really hard. I dropped him off at 8am on a Monday morning with a large group of boys with some adult leaders. We saw him again 7 days later for Visitors day at camp. He did great and had a ball. I struggled every second he was gone. Mother's aren't supposed to just turn their children free like that. I missed him terribly.
And then he came home and within 24 hours I was looking at the calendar trying to determine when the next camping trip was. I think the next one will be easier. Or maybe not....
Faith has done a LOT of swimming this summer. A LOT. This girl is like a fish. Well, a mermaid, according to her. She's tall enough to go down the ginormous slides at our community pool this year. This girl, the one with the heart condition, lugs an inner tube up three flights of stairs all the way to the top of the slide, slides down and lugs that tube right back up. Smiling all the way.
She sure knows how to enjoy life!
Ashley is a little fish too. But she has some crazy in her as well. Well, they all do. But her crazy is peeking through earlier than Caleb and Faith's did. She still likes to be right ON me so being at the pool has been rather easy this year. I'm sure next year will be different.
Ashley will be 18 months on the 19th. THAT's CRAZY! Eighteen months.
She walks, runs, JUMPS, slides down the stairs (that's fun to watch!), climbs on everything, sings "Rock a Bye Baby" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider", loves to read books, loves to empty all my cabinets, loves to scream, and loves LOVES to tease her sister.
She has a ton of words too. Mommy, daddy, Shoe (sounds like Ssssssss, but it still counts!), please, thank you, go, get, bad dog (glad that wasn't damn dog!), good dog, night night, Bubba, Bust (assuming this is for Buster the bad dog), side, and several more I know I'm missing. She babbles constantly! I love her sweet little voice.
She is a good baby.
Now we are six weeks away from school starting. Caleb starts middle school on August 22nd and Faith starts Kindergarten on the 23rd. Not sure what I'm going to do. How is my little girl starting Kindergarten?? How is my BABY starting middle school??
Jamie and I will celebrate 14 years of marriage on the 11th. I remember our wedding day like it was yesterday. I can honestly say that I don't love him like I did on that day though. While I loved him then, things have definitely changed. We have grown up, gotten older and wiser. And we now have three children. Growing with him, having babies with him, learning this parenting thing with him, I can without a doubt say that I do love him so much more 14 years later than I did on that day. I didn't know that would be possible. But when you see the man you love hold your first child together, play horsey with all three kids on back, be a parent.... something changes. That love grows. And my love for him did grow. And its still growing. I can't wait to see what the next 14 years brings. I'm excited about our next chapter of life. I'm so happy that fate worked the way it did and he and I ended up together.
So that is it for now. A little update. I'm not going to say I'll do better because I probably won't. But we're all here and we're doing great. Life is amazing. We miss those who aren't with us but know that they are watching over us.
For those who remember the story about Janie coming to pray with us before Faith's 1st heart cath, you'll like this. Faith had some issues earlier in the week (all is fine now) and we ended up in the ER. Faith was scared and not well. The nurse came in to take some blood and help get her situated. She introduced herself. I wasn't sure I heard her correctly so I took a peek at her name tag. Sure enough... Mimi. Faith had the biggest grin on her face at that point. So Mimi got us through the first few hours of that visit and I knew things would be okay. And they were okay. Everything is just great.
Life is good.
