Do you know me??

Do you know me? I mean really know me?  I can tell you this, I am a loving and loyal person.  Always have been, always will be.  I hope that if you really know me, you know that that really indeed is how I am.  I tell my friends all the time that I love them, and I mean it!  I certainly do not tell people to be nice or make them feel good.  I tell them because I really honestly do love them.  I can't even begin to tell you how blessed I feel for all the wonderful amazing friends and family in my life.

That is not new news to me, and if you have known me a while, it really should not be new news to you.  Sometimes I think it is just silly how loving and loyal I am to people.  There are very few people in this world who I no longer love or are loyal to.  And if you have known me for oh say 15 years or more, you can name at least one of those people.  ;)

I do notice one big change in my life recently.  I am so disorganized now, it drives me crazy!  I feel like I am STILL trying to adjust to being a working mom.  Granted, my life recently has really really taken some twists and turns that have put me in self-preservation mode.

Nowadays when I picture Hubby and myself, for some odd reason I picture us as Meerkats, and we are just starting to stick our heads up out of our hole (and also for some odd reason we are wearing Safari hats).  Starting last May-ish, we had started to retreat towards our hole, be in it more and not come out as much.  And if we did, we did't go far.  Then starting in around September, we really crawled into our hole and stayed in there as much as possible for a long time.  Now I think we are starting to poke our heads out again, and if we do come out, we don't go far from the safety of our hole.  We are really in self-preservation/conservation mode.  I think everyone goes through times like this in their lives.  I must say, this is our first and it's odd, and we are navigating day by day.  And we certainly are not through this  book/chapter of our lives and we know there are still twists and turns lying ahead.  This we know for sure.

There are many wishes I have, and maybe someday they will come true, for most of them are not unrealistic.  But at this time, they aren't happening (for example I would really like to rip up my carpet and get hardwood floors in my house).

And I want to apologize to anyone of our friends or family who have felt slighted or left out in anyway.  Nothing is intentional, trust me.  In many ways for many reasons, it is a battle for us to get through day by day.

I just feel like our life has been so turbulent the last few months that we haven't been ourselves, and therefore I really feel the need to apologize.  I can not explain why I feel this great need, maybe because I am so loving and loyal...  Maybe because I am usually the friend who doesn't miss much, but nowadays I miss a lot...  Please just know that my love for all of you has not diminished nor decreased, I am just trying to find my way on this new path and it is confusing the heck out of me.

Love you all, more than you will ever know!!!

On to Christmas....

Well, we are still in the hole, but we are on our way up.  We put up the Christmas Tree, stockings and a few other decorations.  That is big. We have not bothered with decorations for the past two holidays (Halloween and Thanksgiving).

Hubby is currently employed.  It may be 50-80% travel.  That is a lot...  That is hard on everyone.  Thankfully so far it has be 0%, but we know that will change.

We thought we had plans laid out, but funny how things change on a dime and you just never know.  Reminds me that you just never know what plan is laid out for you, nor are you ever meant to know.  Just gotta go along and take the sharp turns and sudden stops as they come.

Kasey had a pretty bad asthma flare up.  She had one a few weeks back, a minor one.  That prompted us to get her on her asthma meds on a regular basis that we are able to pull her off of for the summer. Then she got a cold last weekend and it launched her into a pretty bad asthma flare up.  I thought for sure on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, that she was going to end up in the hospital.  We took her to the doctor, but surprisingly her pulse oxygen was in the mid 90's!  But the poor thing could NOT stop coughing and she had barely slept the night before.  So, the doctor did all she could, dosed her on steroids and sent us on our way.  It really is all that could be done for her.  We need to get our own pulse-ox meter to put our minds at ease when we are at home.

We had 2 cadets this year for Thanksgiving.  It is rare that cadets are here for Thanksgiving, but sports schedules and such did not allow these two to go home for the holiday.  We were more than happy to open our home to them.  We have had them for about a week, and I must say, it has been fun.

Today we took the girls to the Nutcracker.  My mom took my sister and me when we were younger.  And today, she added on taking her grandkids.  They enjoyed it immensely, well, Kasey did until she fell asleep during the second act.

Well, the Thanksgiving fun continues, we are watching one of the Batman movies with a cadet.  Be well friends!

I like my hole!

So, Hubby's company is officially done, kaput, gone under.  Expected?  yes/no Sad? yes/no  Going to hurt us a lot financially?  Yes.

So, how have I been dealing with it?  Well, the only way I apparently know how.  Live in a hole.

I like my hole.  It is cozy in here.

What does that mean?  That means as little communication with the outside world as possible.  And in some ways, I just don't have the energy.  I am very sorry to those of you who I have missed your birthday, or your email, or your Facebook post.  Please be understanding during this time that right now my biggest priority is my family and my self.  And right now taking care of just those things is a challenge in many way.  Both mentally and physically.

I know we will be okay.  It's just getting to that point of being okay that is not going to be a fun ride.  So please, bear with us while we are currently "under construction" so to speak.

Thanks everyone!  Love you all!!

My soft spot...

If you know me, at all, you know I love animals.

I believe all of us have something that we love, we would fight for, we cry over, we donate to, etc.  We all have our own personal cause for some reason.  Mine is animals.  I may seem unemotional about human things at times, but when it comes to animals, forget about it...

Now, don't get me wrong, my kids/family comes first, but you know we all have our own things we gravitate towards outside that.  Personally, I believe that giraffes are the most amazing and beautiful creatures created by God.

So, why do I bring this up now?  Well, today we had an incident at our zoo:
http://www.krdo.com/news/lion-killed-in-fight-at-cheyenne-mountain-zoo/-/417220/22495874/-/pptmy2/-/index.html

One of our girl lionesses got in a fight with our new male lion, and she passed away as a result of it.  I had already fallen head over heels in love with our new male lion, Abuto.  And I know this is the circle of life.  And I know that Abuto is not going to be punished for killing the lioness.  In fact I would bet a lot of money (if I had money to bet and was a bettin' woman) that he killed her in self defense only.  But I can't even convey my sadness.  Tears have fallen for the lovely Jamila from my eyes.  I can not even imagine being a keeper tonight having witnessed what happened and not able to stop it, or a person just there enjoying the zoo.  I would be scarred for life.

I make it a point to not watch the National Geographic channel.  Heck, I can't even watch Animal Planet.  I do not work in the animal industry for the whole reason that my heart is just to freaking soft when it comes to animals.  So, when events like this occur, it hits me hard.  It shakes me to my core.  It makes me sad in a way that is hard to convey with words.

Why do I share this?  Because I believe all of us have our "thing" that our hearts are way to soft over.  And my prayer for you is that you know what yours is.  I love that is one thing that can join us all together, and that every "cause" has it's advocates.  If I didn't love animals so dang much, who would give money to the zoo?  If people didn't have their soft spot for kids with cancer, who would take care of them?  Who would have started the Make-A-Wish foundation?  See my point?  Every cause needs their soft hearted person to move forward in good way.  Find yours, and support it with all your might!

(but feel free to be sad with me for Jamila and her keepers tonight...  )  :)

September

I find that when I am facing stressful times it is best for me to stay away from my blog.  But tonight I realized that so much stuff has been going on that I really just need to update it.

So first, I am back to work full time.  I will not get into why now, but it is what it is.  I was very fortunate to find a job I really like and I am fortunate enough to have 2 bosses who I adore.  So, that makes the back to work full time transition a little less painful.  Which is good because I really miss my kiddos.  Especially because I was starting work just as Courtney was finishing school for the summer.  So, I didn't get this summer off with them.

Anyway, I am an executive assistant at a title company.  Here in Colorado when you buy a house, you close at a title company.  I know that some states you do that at a lawyers office, but in some states you use a title company.  Thankfully I do not have to do any of the title work, my job is really an admin job.

What eles...  Ah yes, lets see, June we had the Black Forest Fire.  We have several friends who still have houses just because the wind was blowing in their favor.  And we know of people who lost everything because the wind was not in their favor.  We do know it was human caused, we do not yet know by who/what.

Then there is the flooding.  Thanks to the Waldo Canyon Fire burn scar, poor Manitou Springs is almost going to be wiped off the map.  Every time it rains, the water just slides on down the hill and causes a real mess.  During one of these floods, I happen to be at a work event in Green Mountain Falls.  It rained, there was flooding, long story short, the 1/2 dozen employees and a few real estate agents that were stuck because Hyw 24 to get back down to the Springs was closed for hours, we spent the night on the floor of our Woodland Park office.  There is just nothing like sleeping on industrial carpet I am here to tell you.

Then, the last few days we have been having rain like its a 500 year flood.  It was really bad the latter part of this week.  Hubby and I kept an eye on our basement, as many peoples basements were flooding due to all the rain.  But we were good!  Our sump pump was draining water out from the foundation, and it seemed to all be groovy.  Then, it rained the rain of all rains in our neighborhood today.  (while we were at Courtney's birthday party)  We came home from the party and the major intersection by our house was closed due to flooding.  That is not a good sign.  And the debris and washed out landscaping told us on our journey home that we got hit hard.  As soon as we got home, I checked the basement, and sure enough, we had water.  Where the sump pump pushes the water out is on the back of the house, but the drain that sticks out is only about 1/2 inch off the house, so it drains right next to the house.  Normally this isn't an issue, but when we have as much rain as we have over the last few days, the ground can't handle it and it was draining into our window well.  And eventually it just started to drain into the foundation and wall.  So the water was seeping in under the carpet.

I called our neighbor who came over and helped us drain the window well, and then attach some PVC to the drain on the house and make it extend out several feet away from the house.  We have had so much rain, our sump pump has been running almost non stop the last few days.

So while Hubby and our neighbor worked on that, I worked on sucking up water inside, then pulling the carpet and then placing fans to dry it out.  Thankfully a friend of ours dropped off an industrial fan for us to use.  When I was making a trip to Home Depot to exchange some of the PVC piping that was the wrong size, I stopped by the rental department to see if they just happened to have any dehumidifiers.  Once they were done laughing, they said no, people would be dropping them back off the next day, but they were currently all out.  (Don't worry, they didn't really laugh.)

The last few days have been quite a mess all over Colorado with the flooding.  I even had a leak in my office at work.   Even my sister up in the Greeley area is dealing with a "No flush, no water down any drains" for at least 10 days.  Yes, that's right, no flushing her potty for at least 10 days.

But in the last few months there has been lots of good stuff too.  Courtney turned 7 just this past week.  She has been asking and asking to go to Build-A-Bear and get an outfit for her bear she made there last May with her Girl Scout Troop.  So, on her birthday I surprised her with a trip there and let her pick out 2 outfits of her choosing, including shoes.  She picked out a wedding dress and a Princess Aurora dress, and 2 pairs of high heels.  Yes, they have high heels for bears.  And she got her bear a sleeping bag, which she puts her bear to bed in every night.  She was in heaven.  She had so much fun, she had her bear try on her outfit in the store in their "fitting room" area.

Last weekend the girls and I went to Cripple Creek while Hubby went on a motorycle ride.  The girls and I took the train, which is just a short 40 minute ride out to the valley and back, then had lunch and then checked out the museum.  As an added bonus, the wild donkeys who still roam around were right out in front of the train station area, so we got to pet them several times.  We had a wonderful time.

We are currently up to 4 dogs.  We have 2 beagles right now who belonged to a co-worker of mine who moved out of the city.  She was headed to a place that she wasn't able to take them.  So, we are tying to find them a new home.  We will soon be working with Colorado Beagle Rescue to help them get a new home.  I love them, they are adorable, but 4 dogs, 3 birds, a hedgehog and 2 kids are just a bit too much.

Yes, 3 birds.  We picked up 2 more cockatiels this summer during the adopt a pet week special.  Dani and Star joined our flock about 2 months ago.  A week after we got them, our beautiful Indian Ringneck, Kiwi, passed away suddenly.  He was a very old bird and so it was just his time.  We were sad to have that happen, but it gives us great comfort that he got to spend the last year and a half of his life with us in a loving home with lots of individual attention.  So, for a week, we had a flock of 4.  But now we are at 3.

So, Courtney is back in school.  2nd grade this year!  Her school breaks it down into divisions.   She is in division 2, which is actually 1st and 2nd grade combined.   This means she has the same teacher as last year.  Which is wonderful, her teacher rocks and is such a great fit personality wise for Courtney.  Courtney has been back in school for a month now, and of course is loving it!

Kasey is going to a daycare facility near our home, and they work with the district to teach the same pre-school program.  This is nice in several ways for us.  One is that Kasey was already in the program so we were just able to switch her schools essentially.  Two is that Kasey is familiar with their teaching methods, so pre-school was not a radial change for her, and 3 having her in the district preschool program actually saves us money on daycare costs!  Bonus!  The first week we were taking her there was rough, but the Preschool program had't started up yet.  So now that it has, and she has made friends, it is much better.

Of course there has been a lot of other stuff happening the last few months, but this post is already getting long, and it is getting late.  Hope you all are well!

A month or so gone by....

Wow, I can't believed I missed blogging for the whole month of April!  It was just busy.  Not anything super exciting or new, just basics and busy.  I have even given up most of the games on my iPad I used to play like Words with Friends and Dice.  I just feel like my resources should be delegated to other areas.  Like spending time with my kiddos or cleaning the house or playing with the pets.  And believe me, I have been able to fill that time no problem. 

The bad thing is that I really don't have much exciting to share.  I do start a new full time job on Friday.  Not that I necessarily want to go back to work, but we sure do need some extra money around here.  I am going to be an executive assistant at a Title Company here in town.  I am looking forward to working for these folks.  They seem very kind and laid back. 

Well, I have 10,000 things to do to get ready to go back to work full time.  So I will end this very short blog post here!

past 24 hours....

This is how the past 24 hours with Bristol have gone:

He had his t-shirt on so that he and Maggie would leave his incisions alone.  But he went outside and peed on it.  So, I took it off of him.  Within moments I caught Maggie NIBBLING on his incision!!!  So, I watched them both like hawks.  This morning I put a different t-shirt on Bristol.  When I came home from being gone for about 2 hours, he had shimmied his way out of it....  His incision may never heal....  Oh and YUCK apparently isn't YUCKY to Maggie or Bristol.  It apparently should be called YUMMY.




This is how the last 24 hours with Kasey have gone:

I think she is suffering due to Hubby's first trip of the year.  Her behavior has been awful, worse than I have ever seen her! Last night it included a raging screaming and kicking her door fit because she didn't want to go to bed.

A few weeks back she had a cold, and got a dry spot on her nose.  Which of course she couldn't leave alone and she had a scab still on her nose.  Last night, while throwing her major fit and blowing her nose a lot, the scab came off and it started bleeding.  While I was putting Courtney to bed, Kasey helped herself to a bandaid....  See picture....

The overnight was rough from there.  When this kid is over tired, she has a rough night.  Apparently when she is overtired and upset, it equates into a REALLY rough night....

I. am. so. tired.....