Smiling Through the Rain

Since I haven't had all too many periods considering I've been nursing for 9 months and pregnant for the 9 months before that and pregnant again before that and completely non-functioning prior to my surgery which finally got my lady parts in working order, I don't exactly know what to expect from a "monthly" cycle. All I do know is that my cycles were always 29 days long following my ovarian drilling. (They were endless before the surgery).  I would ovulate on Day 16 or 17 every time.  And we only had 4 monitored cycles after surgery, but they were very consistent. So I was feeling rather dismal about the possibility that maybe, just maybe, my body would finally give me a break and just do what nature says it should do.  I had my 1st period after weaning Paisley last month and expected the next 4 weeks later.  Well, 29 days later actually. But 29 days came and went.  I thought I should give it more time.  32 days showed up and I decided maybe I shou...

My Grandpa's funeral was yesterday morning and for the most part, it was peaceful.  I have 15 cousins so it is a LARGE family with lots of people who dearly miss this man.  He had 5 children (1 is deceased), 15 grandkids, and 16 great-grandkids.   Not to mention his wife of 55 years (my Grandma). My half-brother gave the speech at the funeral and did an amazing job describing my Grandpa and how wonderful he was.   He is serving in the Marines so he looked great in his dress blues and we were so proud of him.   We all went to their house afterwards which was difficult of course, but my Grandma enjoyed everyone being around so much that she requested we do another cookout today out there.  So we are.  Even though the house seems empty without him there. The only true black cloud surrounding yesterday was my "father".  I put it in quotations because I never call him that.  I call him by his first name, which I don't wan...

My grandpa is in the ICU following a fall yesterday which resulted in a large subdural hematoma.  It is inoperable due to his age (80) and the size of the bleed.  The neurosurgeon didn't give us any hope since so much damage has already been done. This is a man who had his first heart attack at the age of 41 (so 49 years ago).  He has had multiple heart bypass surgeries, coded several times in the hospital, and defied strict dietary orders by eating his nightly bowl of ice cream before bed.  With chocolate sauce. He has a wonderful belly laugh, ornery smile, and hugs you like he hasn't seen you in ages.  He loves raising chickens of various types and his dogs which are great pyrenees.  He and Grandma still spend late nights at the local casino (playing blackjack, but mostly making friends), love to shop at Sam's, and he still works with my uncle part-time.  I need some prayers and kind comments.  Maybe a funny story or tw...

I just typed a really nice, long post which I was quite proud of.  Seemed to have the perfect mix of seriousness and humor.  And it actually had a point to it.  Which is unusual for this blog that consists of mostly nonsense and boring jibberish.  But then just as I clicked proudly on PUBLISH POST, thinking how proud my blog followers would be that I had taken the time to write something of interest, something terrible happened and the internet destroyed the post.  I had a moment of genius, however, and thought that I could go back into the edit posts section and then repost it.  Blogger always automatically saves what you're writing so frequently that surely it would be there.  And it was there in the edit department, except that apparently it only saved the first TWO lines.  Of a long post. Which means either I was typing crazy fast (and I do type pretty well thanks to a great 8th grade keyboarding teacher.  I only took the class bec...

Paisley has recently started showing off more and more that she is her own person.   I feel like she did this from Day 1 when she refused to sleep in the bassinett like the other babies in the hospital.  And then again when she hated her swing.  And when she refused to ever take a bottle.  You get the point... But now she's starting to become goofy.  And I love it!  She'll join in when we're laughing about something even though she doesn't understand the joke.   And she has the cutest fake laugh ever.   She loves to wave at everyone in a public place, even if they don't notice.  And if someone turns to walk away from her, she shrieks and starts "complaining" at them.    She is super playful and as busy as ever.  This child loves to explore new places and is starting to play on her own for an hour at a time.  Which is awesome!  In fact, if I try to play with her, she'll often turn her back to me...

Hard to believe that last 4th of July, I looked like that!  I'm obviously a whole lot lighter and more comfortable this year, although I admittedly felt prettier pregnant.  I loved the curves and how special my body was at that moment.  Even if it meant my bones ached and my lungs struggled to get a good breath.  I was growing a little life in there... But this year is even better.  Today we took Paisley to White Water (our water park) which she LOVED!  And now we'll be going to her cousin Marley's birthday party tonight.  For those that don't remember, Marley is Kate's twin sister.  We gave Paisley the middle name Kate to remember her after she passed away from a heart condition as an infant.  So, this family is pretty special to us and we look forward to sharing Marley's birthday with her and remembering a very brave and beautiful little girl who has every right to be with us today too. Marley's on the left and Kate is on the right

Well, it's official.  You can indeed travel with an infant.  And it IS still enjoyable!   I hated when I was pregnant and people would tell me that I better enjoy the trips I'd taken because I could never go anywhere again...  Packing wasn't actually even that bad.  I took my one suitcase that I always take, and it did weigh 49.5 pounds.  But we made it just fine.  Security is really nice about letting you carry on liquids for a baby, so that wasn't bad either.  Paisley was once again a champ about the travel and never whined or cried at all.  It took us about 10 hours total to get to the airport, two flights, one layover, and the shuttle to the resort.  She napped several times, ate snacks and played with toys.  And if it were acceptable to let your child pull the hair of the person in the seat ahead of you on the plane, she'd have been thrilled!  Our resort was really beautiful and had lots of trees and animals....