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Cancun

Doug and I went to Cancun a few weeks ago...just a quick jot out of the country, and our first time away from Kaelan. We called her everyday....twice a day, and each time she seemed rather annoyed with us interrupting some great activity she was completely enthralled with. We really could have stayed away longer than the five days, but DAD was not going to have it....he missed his girl, and he wanted to go home to her.






Our time on the beach was relaxing and exhilarating......we'll go with a relaxing picture first.....

Such a peaceful little white boy.....

There was a better shot of him sleeping on the beach in his glorious paleness....however, this was a foreign beach....aka a beach in another country where clothing in an outdoor setting can be optional...i.e. where people can whip off the old bikini top if the desire so strikes them. So, unbeknownst to me, I got a few "bonus" shots of girls in the background that could probably earn me some cash if I sold them on the Internet. I, being the sweet little hillbilly homebread I am have not visited such a beach before, nor did I know I was vacationing at such a location until I awoke from a nice beachfront nap to find BOOBIES staring back at me from a mere ten feet away! I was thankful that a "tanning flip" had occured before Doug awoke, or he too would have been very uncomfortable.....this never happened to us in Florida or California! Really, the only people who were taking their tops off were folks visiting from European countries, so technically, I shouldn't hold anything against Mexican beaches.....just the crazy naked people who visit them.

We went on an excursion to the Chichen Itza ruins....or the "Chicken Pizza" ruins as they are known around these here parts. On the way we stopped for a swim in a natural water pool with a few hundred of our closest friends....

Truly, one of the wonders of this world....this sacrificial temple was amazing....the tour guide informed us that if we did not listen intently to his dissertation, he would have to sacrifice a blond....guess who was the only fair-headed maiden on the trip?

The next day, we went on an awesome adventure zip lining through the jungle, mountain biking, and ending with a dip in a different natural pool.

Fashion desired by any Project Runway fan....

I remember jokingly looking at Doug after putting on this get-up and saying, "Seriously, does this make me look fat?" Another lady in our group thought I was totally serious, and she shot me a look of disgust and said, "No one will be looking at you when you are flying though the jungle a hundred feet in the air....this is for safety purposes."

For the record....she looked like crap in her harness.

A friend in our group took some pictures of Doug on the zipline....I couldn't focus my camera on him through my laughter....hearing him scream, "I CAN'T HAVE ANY MORE CHILDREN!" as he flew along in dreadful pain was too much!

We celebrated Doug's birthday (a little early) with the gang at Bubba Gump's. I totally sucked at the Forrest Gump trivia our server gave us....and I totally thought I knew every part of the movie? What number was on Forrest's football jersey?

This was kind of cool.....see that dude? That's George Lopez...and the other dude is the dude from the "Scary Movies"...Anthony... Something. Anyhow, they were right next to us at the restaurant in the airport. I literally heard a voice and thought...that sounds like George Lopez...then I turned around and saw him. I am not one of those star struck run up and get your autograph types.....instead I just hold up the camera and pretend to take a picture of something else, when really I am snapping the celebrity's picture like some crazed paparazzi. Hence, the lovely photo of George sucking down the rest of his margarita.....

All in all, a great mini vacation....we have a few more small ones planned over the next few months....with our little one in tow!

Until we meet again....

Jude is gone....we let her go yesterday. We've had to take two beloved pets to the vet to be euthanized, and I hope not to have to do that again for a long while. Doug and I stayed with her until the end...and this time, we stayed a while longer. The room was so quiet for that time afterwards. The vet, the veterinarian's assistant, Doug and myself just fell into some time warp....it was only when I looked up from my sobbing that I saw my poor, frail little Jude on the table. She was all curled up....the way she loved to sit when she climbed up near the windowsill and basked in the sun....only she looked like a tiny kitten to me. The vet broke the silence and said, "This was a very brave decision, and I feel it was the right one." That may have been what I wanted deep inside to hear....but it was still hard to swallow. This end was my decision....one that took a lot of thought and prayer, and one I am still trying to gather peace over.



A friend gave me a card with this story.....if you find it a bit corny, you probably never had a true four-legged friend, nor have you found yourself in my state of mourning this kind of loss. Nonetheless, it touched me, and gave me something to look forward to.







http://www.indigo.org/rainbowbridge_ver2.html

It's my potty and I'll cry if I want to......

It is done.....it is official.
Kaelan is now potty trained. It has been a long, tedious, trying, painful, mercilesss task, but I think the hard part is over. We have been in big girl panties for two weeks now, and have had only two "oops". I never knew teaching a little person how to go in a little, tiny hole on a little tiny seat at just the right time could be so hard. I mean, have you ever thought about how you would describe the act of pushing out pee-pee to a two year old? Go ahead, describe it....now explain to them how to know it is time.....not so easy, eh? Even though Kaelan actuall started going on the potty at 17 months (no, really...I am not one of those lying moms)...she just did it at random times. She loved the reward part, and sometimes she be would sit for upwards of 30 minutes just trying so hard to push a drop of pee out so she could savor that M&M. However, she suddenly started lacking those visible signs and clues that she needed to go, and so I missed those oppotunities to ask and "catch" a great potty moment. Let's face it, after a while, waiting an hour for a drop of tinkle gets to cumbersome....so I started slacking. My mom and all those potty training whisperer friends of mine told me to stick her in some big girl panties and she would be trained in days...she was ready. So, I tried it. It worked great for about 2 days, and then we took our first outing in our new Tinkerbell panties. No sooner had I backed out of the garage did I hear a resounding "Uh, oh" from the back seat.....I did not even ask, I just pulled right back into the garage and unloaded my wet child.
I will admit I have been stressed and overwhelmed by this whole process, and I really did feel I failed Kaelan at times for not being better at it, but she is a trooper, and I think I haven't screwed her up for life.
I DO, however, want to vent a little about this whole potty training process......
First of all, it absolutely makes my blood boil when people ask if Kaelan is potty trained, and when I proudly say, "yes"....there is an immediate comment of, "Oh well, girls are so much easier than boys....they basically train themselves." WHAT?
Secondly, I love my husband dearly and he is the BEST dad in the world, but if he makes one more comment about how "WE are potty training Kaelan", I am going to smack him. I don't know if it is because we have a girl, or just the fact that I am with her during most of Kaelan's peak potty hours, but last time I checked, I potty trained Kaelan. There.....I feel better! Happy Flushing!

See the "Potty Queen" here.

Hey Jude.....

16 years of stinky canned cat food, numerous vet bills, even stinkier cat litter changes, furniture scratched and destroyed, hairball puke....and I still love my girls!

My sweetie pie Jude started puking large amounts just after we returned home from our Christmas trip....I'm talking like LARGE amounts. Not to be grossly graphic, but one morning I heard that horrible gulping sound coming from behind me....you know that sound that is similiar to a cat drowning and gasping for air..you cat people know what I mean, and you also know what follows. Yep, the wonderful hairball puke. Only when Jude was doing this for a few days, when she finally did puke....it was like a hairlall ocean....coming from a kittie fountain. Yuck.

Anyhow, after a few days of this, I knew it was time to do the unthinkable task of loading Jude up and heading to the vet. The thought of pulling my own teeth out with rusty plyers while blindfolded with barbed wire is more appealing then taking Jude into a moving vehicle, to a place that just the initial scent upon entering causes her body and neurological system to malfunction and release poo in her pet taxi....sorry, too graphic again.

Jude and her lovely sister, Avery have been my babies for many years.....after many moves and yearly vet trips, Jude just decided she did not want to be toted around anymore, and she basically flat-out refused to go in a taxi. At about 12 years of age, the vet told us the stress of taking her to a vet was going to lead to an early demise...I think he just couldn't take the howling sounds Jude made from the carrier for the whole hour we were in his office. We were very fortunate to find a mobile vet in Lubbock to take care of our shots and what not, so the problem seemed solved. However, since moving to Austin, finding a great mobile vet has not been easy....as soon as we tell them the age of out pets (My dogs: Poncho is 15, Bandit is 10, Cats: 16), they freak and tell me I will need to take them to a stationed office...."just in case".

DO THEY KNOW WHAT THEY ARE ASKING ME TO DO?????

Sadly, the day we took Jude, all the throwing up had caught up with her, and she was feeling pretty yucky.....yucky enough to not rip Doug's arm off when he placed her in the carrier....yucky enough to only make small howling noises, and yucky enough to not poo or puke the whole trip there. I did not go to the vet....Doug was the brave soldier. I made him promise me that he would come home with my baby, or come get me if it looked like she might not be able to....

Every 10 minutes I called Doug on his cell phone to get an update on what was going on..."Did she scratch anyone, yet?"..No...."Did they have to tranquilize her?"....No...."Did you have to spray out the carrier when you got there?"....No....Doug reported back that Jude was actually very mellow and did not fight off care one bit. He also reported that her kidneys were failing, and she was getting cat dialysis.

The last time I took a pet to the vet and heard the diagnosis of kidney failure, two hours later I held my sweet dog Brandi in my arms for her last breaths....having your pets get old sucks.

Okay....now the happy part of the story! So Jude DID come home....she had a huge bubble tumor looking thing in her (basically injected meds and IV) that slowly disapated into her body over time...kittie dialysis. She savored her last bite of 9 Lives Egg and Tuna (well, savored it and then threw it up) that day....from now on, Jude is on a very strict perscription diet....seriously, did you even know a cat could get a RX card? Well, Jude has one, and we have to whip it out everytime we go to the specialitly store to get her million dollar food.

For $50, you too can be the proud owner of this much cat food.....

And I would pay any amount for this sweetie pie.......

Or this cutie...who, by the way, is also on the new diet as a prevenative measure....not that she needed to diet or anything......

So, Jude is doing great...she went from being a 18 lb cat 2 years ago, to a sleek 11 lbs. She is back to her chipper self, and she has been doing extra reps on the stairs to tone up after her weight loss.

Notice those bald spots on the back of her legs....those are from rubbing the carpet on the way down the stairs....she is also bald on her belly from the constant rubbing :)

Yo! They call me Rocky!

So my batteries are dead in my camera....this is good. This means I can't take a picture of myself right now....this means you can't share in my agony. You've heard of Rocky, right? Come on, there are like 6 or 7 movies about him....you're bound to of seen at least one good Rocky bout. Well, right about now, I look like Rocky Balboa just after the big fight with Mr. T....No, I have not entered the women's cage fighting league here in Austin. I am, however, raising a hellion two year old....
My patience has been tried this whole week.....for some reason, my daughter has resorted to physical violence as of late, and it appears my face has huge bull's eye target pasted to it.
In one week she has bloodied my nose, put a nice goose egg bump on the back of my head, and now I am sporting a nice shiner and (hopefully not) a near broken nose. No, SHE has not joined the women's cage fighting league either....
The bloody nose happened while I bent down in front of her car seat to retrieve the cup she chunked under the seat during the ride....as I reached with one hand, I reminded her that we don't throw things because...BAM!...she kicked me right in the nose. I was so shocked, I did not even notice I had started to bleed....she looked just as shocked as she said, "Oh, mama...you have ketchup in your nose." I don't think she meant to full out kick me....it was odd, like she was playing but suddenly she completely lost control of her leg and foot. I was mad, but after closing the car door and taking a few deep breaths, and a few refreshing whiffs of baby powder scented wipes (I had to clean the blood), I opened the door to hear her say, "Sorry, mama."
We'll call that one a freak accident.....
The next day, Kaelan and I sat in dentist office waiting for an appointment...she had not been the happiest kid to be around that day, whiny and grouchy to say the least, but she was somewhat pleasant as we waited, enjoying our time playing with a huge pirate ship in the waiting room. Kaelan decided she wanted me to read her a book....I told her I would after she helped with cleaning up the pirate ship toys...to which I got a resounding, "No! I CAN'T clean up, I want to read!
"***Just a note, "I CAN'T" is the hip phrase in our house...it basically means "I won't, try to make me, I'm testing my boundaries, I am two...deal with it."***
Anyhow, I turned to hand her the bucket to start cleaning, and....BAM!...a pirate ship slammed into the back of my head....no accident this time.....good times!
So.....we had a long lesson on that one....I pray that chunking stage is over.
Oh yeah, the black eye you ask? Well that happened at play group today....Kaelan and another little girl were jamming out with some toy instruments....really jamming out. As Kaelan spun around in circles singing and shaking the heck out of her maraca, she made the mistake of closing her eyes...in her dizziness she started going down....but like a true mariachi maraca maiden, she kept shaking her heart out....unfortunately, my nose got in the way of the down beat.
My toddler has won this round.....I think I am down for the count.

So, about Christmas...

I know I said I would post more about Christmas later, so here goes....


The night before we went to Cloudcroft, we had a little Christmas get together with family here in Austin. Aunt Sara, and cousins Cathy and Alaina (and Alaina's boyfriend Mike), we all present. Doug got a cool Braves blanket made by Aunt Sara (hence the stylin' look in the photo).

On the way to the mountains, we stayed in Abilene and visited Nana, Grandaddy, and Aunt Mary. It was soooo cold.....and wouldn't you know it, we left Kaelan's heavy duty winter jacket at the restaurant....which I did not realize until we were standing in the snow...at our cabin...in the mountains. NICE!

Anyhow...Kaelan learned that "Hot, don't touch!"...is not just a warning, it is a true statement...she stuck her hand on the fireplace shield and burned her finger....she is in the first few photos ops, but not much post burn.

That night in the hotel room, I only had to tell Kaelan to leave the heater alone one time.....she stayed way clear of it....lesson learned.

The mountains were great...not a lot of snow, but still nice. Ty loved his "Smokey the Bear Firetruck". I know half the little intricate parts and pieces are long gone by now, but at least he is enjoying it.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Other highlights:

Ty helped Maw open ALL her presents. He loves her so much, and when she went into the hospital right before Christmas, I could tell he was worried. He misses his Baw, so he cherishes every moment with his Maw.

My nephew Ricky....a.k.a. "Rudolph"

He was very happy to give the low down on what happened to his face.....his sister Lexi hit him with her backpack, knocking him down face-first into the pavement. Lexi's version was a little different, but both agreed he annoyed his sister a bit too much that day.

My other nephew, Mikey....a.k.a. "The Tongue"

He is very proud of this trick, so take it in with all its glory.

It is just impossible to get the whole family together for a photo....here are some/most maybe, not a great picture, but at least we have a picture. Ty did not look up there for anyone....he would when I went up to the loft and yelled to him, but not for anyone else....mission NOT accomplished......