IN MEMORY

Ladies and gentleman, It greaves me deeply to have to tell you that this morning March 6, 2010, at approximately 7:50am we lost part of our family to a terrible tragedy. After rising early this Saturday morning, We let the smallest member of our household, Sweet Sugary Goodness, outside to enjoy the wonderful sunshine and to take care of her morning potty issues (yes, she has now actually touched the ground after 5 months of continual holding). Unfortunately, the second smallest member of our family, Bubba Downs was the first to notice that Sugary was ready to come back inside and as the adult members of the family were otherwise occupied, Bubba took it upon himself to let her back inside through the sliding glass door. Tragedy stuck, for he closed the door too quickly, catching the very tip of her glorious wagging tail in the door jam severing it off completely. Although her tail and her pride were both damaged she will of course survive. We will be having a memorial service for Sweet Sugars tail at 2pm today and for those of you who cannot attend we would like to ask for a moment of silence.

Parenting

The hardest thing I have ever done
The hardest thing I have ever done is to be a parent. I guess the fun part is over. I ran into some small issues with my oldest daughter and now it looks like we will be working through some slightly larger issues with the second oldest daughter. I know we will get through them. Not looking forward to all the energy and extra time I’m going to be putting into her but I am looking forward to the outcome. I am positive that we will all find out way through these next couple years and my second oldest will also turn out to be a wonderfully smart, well balanced adult. Bump bump bumpy roads ahead.
I am however sick and tired of other parents and their attitudes towards the choices I have and will continue to make for my children. I firmly believe that there are many different ways to parent your children. Who’s to say which way is the right way. Its really the end result that counts-not how you get there. Every parent will make many mistakes. Every mistake I’ve ever made concerning my children has been done with their best interest in mind. All you can do is admit the mistake and continue to try different ways to obtain the result you were originally looking for. I make a promise to each of my children. I will always do my best to help them each make smart choices. I will try my hardest to keep them from choosing the wrong path. I will never, never give up on them. No matter what the problem is I will always do what it takes. “Failure is not an option”. Children are not disposable. They are not dogs. You cannot ship them off when they test your patience. You can not trade them in.
If other parents do not agree with my parenting methods then they can kiss my ass. I am a strict parent and I demand respect from my children. I give back respect in return. I am a fair parent. I am generous and loving. I am affectionate. I set the bar high for my children to give them something to strive for. I am not their friend. I am their mother and teacher. I refuse to send my children into the world to learn by experience. I send my children out into the world with knowledge. I will do what it takes to save my child from hurting themselves by making ignorant choices. I will not be able to save them every time but I do my best to soften any hurt from them that I can.
I am praying for patience and asking my children to also have patience with me as I am still learning also. I am crossing my fingers and taking deep breathes. I am trying to act more and react less. I am hoping I can help my daughter find her inner value and learn how to respect herself more. I will be making choices in her near future that with alter her path in life and am so scared that I will make the wrong decisions. But I will do them with the best intentions.
Its so very hard to hear that your child hates you but I believe that the end will justify the means and hate is and emotion that can be turned. I love all my children forever.

Christmas VACA

Had a great time on vacation. My husband got up at 3 am with me and Fallon and Sweet Sugary Goodness (the dog). Very tired as we got to the airport. Kind of nervous because we had never flown with the dog before. Would she whine on the plane? Or pee? What if they didn’t even let her on? When we got up to the counter to check in they didn’t even ask us if we had her rabies certificate! However, Fallon had forgotten her identification so I had to fork out an extra $100 so she could fly as an unaccompanied minor. Grrrrr (I love my lallie pup, right?!). Not very happy with that little girl. So other than the little ID bump in the road everything else went very smoothly. Sugars never whined at all through the entire flight and it was almost 4 hours. During the transfer we took her out of her carry case and she was a happy camper. Everyone loved her. Fally slept through most of the flight-I did too (so did sugar). I walked Fally to her next flight and she was off to Tulsa! My friend Randy was at the airport in Arkansas to pick me up and we went right to my friend Allisa’s house where we roasted marshmallows in her fireplace and made smores-DELICIOUS! The next day I rented my car and was off to see Chere’. We had a great week. We drove to Little Rock to visit with Chere’s sister Kathy and her dog Zoey. Sugars and her got along like Forest and Jenny (peas & carrots) Hmm that sounds good. I think we will have beef stew for dinner tomorrow J. One night we also went up to the Lodge at Mount Magazine and had a wonderful dinner. I had the smoked salmon with lemon and caper sauce. Chere had a huge monster burger and Randy had a Reuben Sammie. It was very sad to have to get back on the plane to come home but at the same time I sure did miss my family. I spoke to Mia a couple times while I was gone and all she could say and talk about was how very much she missed her Sugary Goodness. Another long flight and we were back home. Mr. Lovely aka my husband picked us all up at the airport and he told us all how much he missed us. I secretly think he might have even missed Sugary Goodness. She has a silly little way of slinkin up into your heart and makin it all warm and fuzzy. It was very good to see my family after a week away. Miss Chellsea was a great help while We were gone. She helped shuttle Bubba back and forth and helped take care of everyone. What a great girl she is! Life is good! Oh yeah I forgot-We also went to visit Sugars Mom at my friend Cris's house and we went to Mrs. Bankheads natural store and got Bubba some good eatin food and then when I got home I took Bubba to get his moppy hair cut and then we all went to get donuts in town and THEN-Life was good!

Mia's 2009 Christmas Recital

Just got back from Mia's Christmas recital. This year it was held at Cascade Community Church in Monroe. I really liked having it at that spot because it was so much closer than having to drive to Bothell and also this year they didnt have so many of the adults preforming so it more for just the children which is who I would rather watch. Again this year Mia was put in the back row and it was really hard to get a good picture of her or even just watch her becasue we couldnt see her. I think this is about three years now and this time I am saying something to the ballet teacher. I think I'll just shoot her an email. We also took Sweet Sugary Goodness to the vet forher very last vaccination. She's feeling pretty rough right now cause her shoulders are sore. I've got her laying on a heat pad right now cause I think that might help. I've been thinking about enrolling her in a obediance class also. I want her to be very well behaved and trained. Probably cost too much but just a thought. Tomorrow is the Rockette show and Chellsea's friend Kathleen will be comming to watch Bubba while we go. Maybe next year we can take him with. Worked out this morning also. I've been running 4 miles each time I go and lately I found that its getting easier and easier to do the 4 miles so this morning I raised the incline even more and upped the speed. I ended up burning almost 500 calories and ran 4.5 miles. Hope this is gonna help shrink my tummy :)

Mia's Beautiful Butterfly hat...

So Mias’s been bugging me about making her a hat. I have been so busy working on everyone else’s’ hats for Christmas that I have been neglecting my wonderful Mia’s plea’s. So I russell up a hat pattern and get to work. The pattern on the hat is called a “Butterfly” stitch and I have never done one before. I usually Google all the knitting terms that I am unfamiliar with or I will got to http://www.youtube.com/ and watch how someone else does things first. However, on this butterfly stitch I find nothing helpful. I did find some instructions but they were too complicated for my pea brain to comprehend. So I finally had to go to a knitting forum online and ask for help. I just love all the knowledge on the internet. You can find out all kinds of good things. Specifically Mia wanted a Lime Green Hat to match her lime green coat. I got the pattern, I got the yarn, and went to work. Mia would monitor my work every day asking “Is it done yet?” “Looks like your almost done mom, right?” My fingers actually hurt so bad on the third day but I finished it for her. So now she has her Lime Green Hat to match her Lime Green Coat and you know what? Now she wants a Lime Green Scarf! Ahhhh! oh and Bubba just had to model a slouchy hat for the camera. Isnt he so cute?

Turkey Turkey Turkey!

We didnt get too many Thanksgiving pictures :( But we did have a great time! As always there was way too much food. Isnt there supposed to be too much food? I thought so! We ran just a little late getting to Grandmas house because Ditterbug took a particularly long nap. We were worried that one of us would have to stay home with him and not get to go but on Thursday he looked so much better. His nose really dried up and his cough was really good sounding (not that deep nasty). It was kind of funny not to see Amy at the house because all the kids were there. Not sayin it was a bad thing that she wasnt there, just kinda odd. I also missed my brother Kirk. I sure wish things were different with him. And Shelby. Thanksgiving is not quite as animated without Shelby. Maybe things will be different for Christmas. Mia's little friend Emily had her appendix out and Mia was very upset that Emily might die. I asked Mia what she thought might happen and she said, "The Dr will probably cut out her appendix, put it in a ziplock bag, and Certainly put it in the fridgerator". She's so funny. Maybe her family used in for Thanksgiving (Blah). Mia and Bubba are both sitting at the computer table playing a puzzle game. Bubba loves his sister so much. Sweet Sugary Goodness went to the Doctor yesterday and received her Rabies shot. Her poor shoulders hurt so bad and the medicine mad her really tired. I put her on the heating pad for awhile and this morning she is feeling much better. Getting tired of sick dogs and sick children. I

, making Mia's Lime Green had to match her coat. It has a new stitch it in that I've never done before called a butterfly stitch. Its really not a hard stitch to do but I couldn't find any directions on the Internet and it took me forever to get a fellow knitter on a forum to finally respond to my plea for help. Was very frustrating but finally I got it and now her hat is under way. I decided to add yellow to the hat mostly because I don't have enough green to finish it but I'm thinking that the yellow is going to do just fine! and Mia has decided that she likes the yellow also. Very interesting hat. I will post pictures when I am done :) Thanks mom for all the good eats! Was a great day and we all appreciate the hard work in the kitchen :)

My husband surprised me with a weekend getaway to Whidbey Island. We took the ferry over to the Island and stayed at a little resort on the water called Captain Whidbey’s. We ate a wonderful meal at the lodge restaurant. I had a lamb shank?! When they brought it out it was this huge piece of meat attached to a huge bone and I started laughing saying it reminded me of the Flintstones or maybe a caveman meal. Made me want to pick it up by the bone and start gnawing on it. Then there was this guy behind us that had one of those funny sounding things that you hold up to your throat so people can hear you talk that makes you sound like Darth Vader. Of course this also made me snicker through the whole meal. On Saturday we took another ferry over to Port Townsend and on the way I was watching the water and thought I saw a shark fin. I got all excited and started pointing and saying "Look, Look" and then at the last minute I thought-That cant be a shark, I can’t yell shark or everyone will think I'm an idiot. So instead I yell "Look, Look, Things! Theres THINGS in the water!" Oh I am such a retard. Things in the water? why would I think that would sound better than "shark". Uhhh! They were sea lions and they were huge. They reminded me of army slugs. Long and kinda slimy looking. Port Townsend was very cool. We walked around and checked out a bunch of shops. Got the girls some gifts and visited an antique mall. Sunday we went to Deception Pass and took some really great pictures of the water and the bridge (which was very scary to cross). and a seagull pooped on our windshield-gross! Then right before we checked out to leave the lodge my husband say’s “look under the stairs” There was a family of otters all curled up underneath the steps of the deck in the back leading to the water. I think that they must have made a home under there. They were very cute. So we saw an awful lot of wildlife and had a great weekend. Oh on the way back we stopped at a super nice thrift store and my husband got a boat prop and I got a bunch of yarn and some knitting needles (lots of goodies) it was like Christmas 2nd hand Yeah!