It is time to blow the dust of this old blog of mine. I’ve written and re-written this post a few times in my head over the past couple of weeks. I had every intention of writing this early this morning, but I’ve spent much of the day ill and consequently it has been a pretty lousy day for my husband even though this day is supposed to be the day we celebrate him. That in itself says so much about my babies Daddy.

Where is he right now?

He’s all ready made the weekly grocery trip to the grocery store for me because I was too sick to do it. He did that after he picked up the house and did a load of dishes all while watching the kids while I took a nap to try and cure the terrible headache that I was suffering. Now he’s off doing the weekly Wal*Mart trip to get the items that are cheaper at Wal*Mart than the grocery store. People who venture into Wal*Mart during weekend daylight hours deserve a medal!

Every day of his life he sleeps very little. We work opposite shifts so that we don’t have to do daycare and one of us is always home with the children. Consequently, we don’t see each other much and we are virtual single parents. In addition, Mike doesn’t really get to sleep and he hasn’t really been able to sleep for over 5 years. He doesn’t get home from work until after 5AM some nights and after only 2 hours of sleep, he has to get up and take care of our children while I head to work for the day. Then I get home and he gets a nap and if he’s lucky he may get 3 hours of sleep before he heads off to work. He’s tired and his body aches. His memory is shot and I’m sure each day is a struggle for him.

He doesn’t complain. He does this for our family each and every day. With any luck he gets some extra sleep and maybe some R&R over the weekend…but it isn’t like you can catch up on sleep. It isn’t like his body can recover in 2-days.

I know few men that would sacrifice like Mike sacrifices for his family. I wish I could make the children understand how lucky they are to have such a wonderful man for a father. They love him very much and they miss him when he’s sleeping. I think they know they have a great Dad but are just too young to understand how great he truly is. I get it though. I am so aware every day how blessed I am. Superficially speaking I’ve landed myself a really gorgeous fellow that loves me so much. He thinks I’m beautiful when I wake in the morning and have make-up all over my face and crazy cartoon hair. He loves me when I’m sick on Father’s Day and can’t take care of him like a man like him deserves to be taken care of. I married a really great man and an outstanding Father.

Mike, thank you for all that you do every day for our family. We are blessed to have you. Happy father’s day, my love.

I just had a moment. One of those moments where everything makes sense. One of those moments where you actually wonder if you can see God’s hands in your world. It was a simple moment. Gabe fell asleep in our bed, while Mike and I watched a movie in the living room. When the movie ended, and Mike held our sleeping boy in his strong and powerful arms that is when the moment happened.

In an instant, I saw Gabe’s cheek peacefully resting on his Daddy’s shoulder while he hung in Mike’s arms like a rag doll. I saw the strong, honest, kind and handsome man that I married carrying my first born child. In that same moment, I saw the house around me. The toys strewn all over the house. One lonely dining chair in position from when me made a blanket fort last night. My panty hose all over the floor in the bedroom, because Evie loves to empty drawers or baskets of clothes. A basket of laundry waiting patiently to be washed.

In that moment all I can think is this is my life, my beautiful, wonderful life.

We took Evie to our Pediatrician today. We’ve been on pins and needles since we brought her home…to some degree. They kept her for so long because she wasn’t eating enough and then after we brought her home, she wasn’t taking in the amount that they wanted her to take in…so, we hoped that she wouldn’t end up back in the hospital on a feeding tube.

We’ve been trying so hard to force her to eat more even after she just won’t take any more. So, we’ve been waiting for today with a little bit of anxiety. OK, I only had a little anxiety; Mike had a lot. When Evie was born she weighed 10 lbs 8 oz. At some point while in the NICU, she dropped to 9 lbs 2 oz. When she left the NICU, she was climbing back up in weight at 9 lbs 10 oz. So, we just wanted her to at the very least maintain that weight.

She weighed in today at 10 lbs 2 5 oz.!! We were so relieved. I love our Pediatrician. I love the way he is with the kids and I love the way he talks to us. He never talks above us. In fact, it is just like talking to another parent. He will often say, “I would do this” and we know he has children of his own, so it actually means something when he says he would or wouldn’t do something. While we were waiting to come home with Evie, I kept thinking that if I could just get her home, I would work with OUR doctor and everything would be just fine. I think that even more now. She’s thriving and our doc thought she was a picture of good health.

We both felt so good leaving this appointment. My baby girl is home and she’s doing very well and life is good.

Now on to the next obstacle…Gabey is very constipated and he cries every time he tries to poop. I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that he refuses to eat anything but Goldfish crackers and corn chips. I’ve got him eating bacon, bran cereal, fiber bars and juice. Any other advise from parents out there?

…has come home.

Born September 24th at 9:18 PM. 10 lbs 8 oz. 22 inches.

Mom is doing well and is still in recovery as I’m writing this. Evelyn has some issues common to babies born in her circumstances (gestational diabetes and five weeks premature), but is being monitored closely by staff so friendly and attentive I feel completely at ease about her situation. Evelyn will be in intensive care at least over night. She’s been visited by a few of the many people who love her. She’s expected to be just fine.

If I can figure out how to work Jen’s flickr account, check there for pictures.

I’ve been so absent on this blog, because I’ve been insanely busy. Between a significant amount of overtime, taking care of Gabey and keeping up with Avon, I just don’t have any time. Add to that the weekend from hell…OK, it wasn’t that bad, but it wasn’t that great either. Last weekend we went to my brother-in-law’s home for a family gathering. He’s leaving to go to Iraq tomorrow and it was the last family shin-dig. So, it was very important that we get there, and it was very enjoyable while we were there, but he lives 4 hours away. That is a total of 8 hours in a car with a toddler. Gabe was really good. He fussed a little toward the end, but honestly, I was a little fussy by that time. Then we left at his bed time, so the drive home wouldn’t affect him. We got home around 1:00 AM. Fortunately, Mike did most of the driving.

The next day, we went to my Dad’s farm to celebrate a very late Christmas gathering/ early birthday party. He lives about 1.5 hours away, so that was about 3 hours on the road. Again, Gabe did very well and we stayed until it was his bed time. I’m grateful that Gabe was so great, but it was tiring and at the end of all the trips, it felt like we lost an entire weekend only to go back to a lot of overtime at work.

There has been a lot that I’ve wanted to write about…my birthday, Gabe, work, etc. I should really try to carve out time to get some of it on this blog. I miss blogging and I miss getting comments. I miss the entire blogging community!

Last weekend we visited my Dad’s farm and while listening to his new birthday CD, “Creed of Love” by ‘It’s a Beautiful Day’, Gabe and his Grandpa decided to bust a move.

As I entered the title for the post, I realized that I must have all ready used this title before, but I’m OK with that. A lot has gone on here lately. My Mom moved out on Wednesday. Not only did she move out, but she moved across the country to the Northern West Coast. I miss her, but it sure is nice to have the house back.

Really, it was pretty easy having her here. She was always busy, so we didn’t see her much. The hardest part would be sharing the bathroom and giving up space that we had used previously. Which is consequently part of what we are enjoying now that she’s gone. We moved our computers into the dining room and soon, we can move them back upstairs. There are a couple shelves in the bathroom that we gave to her that are empty now and I’m planning out how to reorganize in my head. When she moved in, she stored all of her belongings in our basement. It basically consumed the entire basement. As she has planned this move, she went through all of that stuff. She threw a lot of it out. She took some of it with her and what is left is consolidated into one corner of the basement to be taken away by a moving company in December. This has basically given us 3/4 of our basement back and in December, we’ll have the whole basement back. It is quite nice to have the space back.

Just before she left, we took Gabey trick-or-treating for the first time. He wasn’t feeling the greatest, so it was a little difficult…but still pretty fun. Visit Flickr to see the pictures.

I also got some sad new this morning. My aunt passed away last night. I really don’t know the details, nor do I expect to find them out…that is just how my family works, but I’ll be attending her viewing tomorrow. She didn’t want a funeral, so she’ll have a viewing and then she’ll be cremated. I’m not big on funerals, but still it all seems so abrupt. We stopped by my Aunt & Uncle’s home today and I got to see family that I haven’t seen in years. It was kind of nice. Once upon a time, my Dad’s side of the family congregated every Sunday at my Grandma’s house. When she passed away that all came to an end. Everyone went their own direction and we all lost touch. I saw my cousin, Sherry. She is the same age as me and we grew up together. We got in a lot of trouble together and we had a lot of fun together. She was my best friend for a couple of years and then we lost touch, just like everyone. I saw her today and I was shocked to see a 12-year old girl that looked just like my best friend from years and years ago. Her daughter is her spitting image and this was the first time I’ve ever met her. I’m hopeful to see my other cousin, Jeff tomorrow. Strange how one death tore the family apart and another brought them together.

Well, that is about all for now. Since my Mom moved across the country, I’m really going to try and post more often, so she can stay up to date. Wish me luck on that!

Yesterday was a very tough day. I think it is probably safe to say it was one of the worst days of my life. I’m sure I don’t need to spend a lot of time telling you how much I loved her, as I elaborated on so many posts in the past:

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! – 11/27/03
My Dog Runs From Her Butt! – 08/09/04
Seeing Red – 05/07/05
My Baby Girl – 06/29/05
A Prayer for My Pup – 07/19/06
Man’s Best Friend – 10/14/06

My old girl hasn’t been able to sleep with me since she’s been blind, deaf and more frail because she would fall off the bed and potentially hurt herself. So, Friday night I pulled the mattress off our bed and drug it into the living room. After Gabey went to sleep, I pulled Taz-Cee onto the matress and cuddled her until she fell asleep. Then Taz-Cee, Gabe and I slept on the living room floor. I let her enjoy one of her last two bones on Friday and the next on Saturday morning. I left the matress in the living room for us to cuddle on throughout the morning on Saturday. At 12:30 PM, we left for the Veterinarian clinic. I held her close all the way there. Then we had some waiting time in an examination room until the vet came in to see us. We put her down on the floor because she was sick of being held. She seemed happier than Mike and I have seen her in a while. She wagged her little tail whenever she found us. Mike would make kiss noises and she’d jump into the air a little bit toward him. I’m very glad to know that she got some extra attention in the last hours of her life and that in the last minutes of her life she was a happy girl.

She went to sleep so fast, I wished I had just a few more minutes…but if I had a few more minutes, I’m sure I still would have wished for more. We brought her home with us and buried her in the back yard. I wanted her close to me, so I asked Mike to put her right off the patio outside of the back door. I will mark her grave with some flowers in the spring. I love her more than most people and I miss her more than anyone could possibly imagine.