Thank You

Thursday, May 29, 2008

My husband recently told me a wonderful story. He was sitting in the Atlanta airport waiting for his flight home to Birmingham after a business trip. He noticed a man and woman who appeared to be in their sixties. A United States Marine walked by in full uniform and the man said " Soldier! Thank you for your service". It caught my husbands attention and gave him butterflies in his stomach. A second soldier passed by a few minutes later and the man called out to him, sort of loudly and said the same thing " Thank You Soldier". The man than turned to his wife and said " Ya know what would be great honey?" " I should have bracelets made that read "Thank You" and hand them out to every military person I see."

What if we all said "thank you"? Whether we agree with the war or not, we owe our thanks to these men and women. Imagine the feeling those soldiers experience when we extend our gratitude for their service.

Hmmmm.....

We Survived

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

I woke up at 6am surprisingly feeling excited to go to work. I am sure this feeling will wear off in a week or so when the reality of having to do this permanently sets in. The morning went rather smoothly because I made sure to have everything ready last night. I had my clothes along with the boys laid out. Both of them would have water play at school so I packed their backpacks with towels, extra clothes and a stuffed animal for each for snuggling.

We were out of the door by 7:10 with only one tantrum and all our clothes clean and neat. I took them into the daycare and at first all was well. Noah handled it well but Zachary not so much. I was caught off guard by this because I figured Noah (being the youngest and a Mamma's Boy) would have the toughest time. Zachary didn't start to cry until I left and from what I am told, it lasted awhile. He had to be comforted and was taken under the arm of some new "buddies" who helped him settle down. Hearing this on the phone when I called for my 2nd update broke my heart and I wanted to run to him and sweep him up in my arms and hold him tighter than ever before.

Amazingly, he did better as the day went on and things worked out well. I hope tomorrow is better for Zachary now that he knows what to expect.

ETA: I only cried half way to work. Not bad.

Beach Boys

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Chaz recently made a job change and had a little free time before taking the new position. We miss all of our family in FL and have been fortunate to see most of them over the last year. We all have been missing Grandpa and Grandma in Ft. Pierce so we decided to take a trip. Zachary and Noah were overly excited to see family and their big brother, Caleb, who was able to miss school and join us.

I was dreading the drive because I knew trying to keep a 2 ½ yr old happy in a car seat for 11 hours was going to be difficult. Typically when we take these road trips, it’s the last few hours that suck. Well this trip wasn’t like the others. I think Noah cried for the entire first 4 hours of the trip. We stopped in Valdosta to eat and were tempted to turn around and go home because things sucked so badly. Thankfully, things turned around and the second half of the trip wasn’t as awful.

We stayed in Ft. Pierce with Grandma and Grandpa and while there, Nana, my mom and Gary, drove over to spend time with us. It felt so good to be with family. It’s the missing piece to our happiness in AL. I miss getting together with family and sharing memories with the people who matter the most to us. The boys soaked up all the extra attention that was being thrown at them.

The boys and I went to the beach with my mom and Judy. Caleb and Zachary rode the boogy boards while Noah tried to sort things out. He had never been on the beach so it was all new to him. He wasn’t having the water and I must say, I can’t really blame him. It was damn cold! Noah did enjoy supervising his big brothers while they dug a hole that seemed like it may reach China.

It was hard to leave our loved ones. Coming home to Alabama felt good. I missed the mountains. Things would be perfect here if we could just add our family to our everyday lives. I miss them all and I wish the boys had more time with them. Maybe one day God will bring us all together. I’m hoping and praying!

Spare Me!!!

Thursday, May 1, 2008

I am sitting here watching Nancy Grace and the same commercial keeps coming on. It's the new Electrolux commercial with Kelly Ripa. Every time I see this commercial I want to throw my shoe at the tv. Her hair is perfect, her clothes are all designer, her children are neat and tidy and her home is immaculate. There's a segment when it shows her looking under the childrens beds for monsters. Okay, in my house, the only monster you find under the beds are the huge ass dust bunnies or the oodles of toys that have been shoved under there by a 4 year old doing his best to spend the least amount of time possible cleaning his room.

If the commercial were shot in my home, the counters would have clutter, the homemade banana splits would be half melted and the children would be covered in whipped cream and chocolate syrup. The dog would be doing all she could to jump into the lap of the children eating the banana splits. My hair would be half assed and I would have on some less than $20 Target or Old Navy t-shirt with my favorite pair of flip flops..NOT MINOLO HIGH HEELS.

Okay..so I feel better.

Being A Mom

Monday, April 21, 2008

Why doesn't anyone tell you how badly it can hurt to be a mom some days? I feel so sad for everything that is happening with Caleb. I feel like I was lied to and deceived and tricked into allowing him to stay behind with his dad in FL. I have such a bad taste in my mouth.

I feel totally helpless and alone in my journey to save Caleb from all the chaos he's trapped in. His grades are falling to D's and he's been to the Principals office for misbehaving in school. My gut tells me that things are seriously a mess with his living arrangements and I just continue to pray to GOD that he guides me and helps me to figure all of this out.

His father is blinded by his addiction and selfishness and if things continue, it will be my sons downfall. I lose sleep every night with the thought of where Caleb could be headed. The trend is not looking promising to me. There's no more church, no more step mom to help with homework and just general parenting skills that are integral to my sons development.

I see the boys at church and in our community and I see the benefit for my son. I wish he could just be a part of all the greatness here in our small town. I would love to be able to send him and Chaz off for a fun football weekend. I would love for him to be here to take trips with us to Franklin and Raleigh.

I would give anything to have my family whole again. I pray every night and I am trusting that everything that's happening is part of HIS plan and I just have to trust. I pray every night that however things should be, things are in the best interest for Caleb. I just want him to shine. I want the world to know the magic that lies behind his beautiful blue eyes. I want his little brothers to see the big brother that encourages them to respect others, speak politely and have a positive outlook. I just want things to be right.

Tonight I realize that I have to let go. I can't force it to happen and my faith is going to have to get me through this. It does give me peace and helps me to relax some. I pray that God helps and puts Caleb back on track. Please God.

Roll Tide

Saturday, April 19, 2008

I have evolved and entered the world of bloggers. I will spend countless hours editing my layout, changing colors and fonts, adding cool and trendy extras and then changing everything because none of it seems perfect enough. Woohoo.

The color for my page is the closest I could find to Crimson. Crimson is the single most important color to my family as we are huge (border line obsessed) ALABAMA fans. I guess I can tell you how it all started.

My husband and I met 8 years ago while living in Florida. Chaz had spent much of his tween-teen life in NE Alabama and is and always has been a Bama fan. As any person who has ever spent time in the state of Alabama can tell you, if you live in AL you are either a Bama fan or an Auburn fan. It's something you are born with.

My husband would share stories with me about UA. I swear I would and still do get goosebumps hearing stories of Bear Bryant, 12 National Championships, The Million Dollar Band..I could go on and on. In 2004 we evacuated during one of the hurricanes to Hoover, AL. I got to go to the campus and see the school first hand and experience the Bear Bryant Museum and I was hooked. I was addicted and didn't want to cheer for any other team. The Pride and Tradition of Alabama leaped into my heart and will stay there forever.

We moved to Alabama in 2006 and were so excited to be closer to the school and to have the ability to go to home games. Well, 2006 wasn't a great season for Bama and it sucked to have to sit there and watch them lose..and they didn't lose pretty...it was ugly. It stings worse because every team wants to beat Alabama, it doesn't matter what year it is or where the games at, we are the team you want to beat. Funny thing happened in Jan of 2007 and Alabama hired a new coach by the name of Nick Saban. If you don't know who Nick Saban is you either never watch ESPN, know nothing about college football or have been living under a rock for the last decade. We have now become the most hated football team with the most hated football coach. Why are we hated? Because we have a winning tradition and we now have a winning coach. No other team can say they have 12 National Championships and it's unlikely that any team will ever be able to make that statement. The Bama Nation has been passed on from generation to generation and our fans, while crazy at times, always demand we rise to the top again. We belong there. We are the University of Alabama!

I love Bama football so much that for my wedding anniversary, I encouraged my husband to buy us tickets for the Georgia game. With Nick Saban at Alabama ticket prices soared and every game had sold out. We paid $300 for tickets and my husband drove over 4 hours to pick them up. By the way, he bought them from the guy who owns the recording studio who did the soundtrack for Forrest Gump and recorded artists like Hank Williams, Skynard, etc.. Too Cool!

Well we lost the game in overtime. I almost lost my voice screaming for the team to win and my heart broke when I couldn't sing Rammer Jammer at the end. We recovered and spent the rest of the season cheering and screaming for our team and ending with at least a winning season.

I look forward to this season. I look forward to teaching my boys more about Alabama. I get a tickle out of the fact that they dispise the color orange. They won't eat an orange life saver, won't color with an orange crayon and will call Home Depot "the Auburn store". LOL. You may think this is crazy. You don't understand the in state rivalry here. Google it sometime and you will be amazed. It's second to religion in the state of AL and I am proud to be a part of it.

So my first post is about my love for Alabama, all steming from the color choice on my blog template. I told you I was obsessed. My children and husband are just as bad and think, this whole state is full of people just like me with the same passion. I guess it helps you to picture the energy of 92,000 people singing Sweet Home Alabama on a hot Saturday afternoon in Tuscaloosa, AL.

In the future I hope to blog more about my family. There's my husband Chaz and our three sons. Caleb is 11, Zachary is 4 1/2 and Noah is 2 1/2. Our life is crazy and chaotic and we wouldn't change it for the world. Soon enough it will be calm and boring, LOL.

Roll Tide Roll.