Preparing for the Party

Addie was all about helping me get everything ready for Julien's birthday party.

She arranged and rearranged the plates and napkins numerous times and wanted to help with every little detail.

When she saw my brother's car pull up in front of the house, she got so excited and ran to the front door - the whole time she was yelling for "GaGa".

She stood at the door watching everybody walk down the sidewalk and it just tore my heart out when she looked up at me and asked, "GaGa?".

That created a bit of a setback for my emotional well-being for the evening.

I know Addie misses her tremendously and she asks about her every single day - multiple times a day.

Julien told me that the decorations were cute and sweet and I told him that it was a tie between the mismatched theme I created or he could have had a baby zombie theme.

He thanked me for my efforts and we proceeded forward with the party.

Day "Off"

Since the kids were out of school for Veteran's Day, I made a point of packing as many errands into the day as possible.

I'm thoughtful like that.

We started the day with a trip to the salon for haircuts.

I am so incredibly relieved that Addie isn't afraid of going to the salon anymore.

We are rather fortunate to have people who are patient and sweet with Addie and the patience finally paid off!

We also managed a trip back to the adoption agency where the bear came from.

Since we were there and headed for another - horrible - appointment, I bought Addie a "prize" in hopes of bribing her into allowing me to keep some of my sanity

seeing as how we were going to THE DENTIST!

This poor kid is still traumatized every time we go.

It takes three people to hold her down while the dentist cleans her teeth.

It's horrible.

The good news is that her teeth were nice and pretty, which meant I tried to ruin that by taking her for ice cream.

She seemed excited about a trip for ice cream, but failed to eat any of it.

We have six months before we get to do it all over again.

One week...

until Julien turns 16.

He is one excited 15 year old!

Football Season

Well, I totally failed at being a good documenter of the football season.

I don't even know where I left off and I don't even know the final stats.

I'm just that awesome right now, and feel really bad that I messed up the information "for" Julien.

Varsity did go to the playoffs in Mobile last week, but lost.

That's about all I can tell you.

Football Season 2014...that's a wrap.

Rotten girl has had a little bit of a break from being on the go every single day.

Julien got a three day break from practice, and moved right into wrestling.

HHS has their first wrestling match tomorrow night.

After Julien taking a year off from wrestling, this should be interesting.

He is definitely looking forward to it and poor Addie will have to get acclimated to the hours upon hours of being stuck in one stinky gym after another.

Tis the season!

The Great Outdoors

Thanks to the cooler weather, it is actually a pleasure to explore the great outdoors once again.

Addie has been quite the talker lately, and although we can't understand everything she is saying, we are hearing a lot of new words

and

she asks, "What's that?" more and more and more,

so our day at the zoo was not a quiet one.

She was full of questions.

We ended the day with a few trips down the slide, and one very happy little girl.

Veteran's Day

I won't even lie or try to make excuses on why I have been such a slacker.
I didn't even write a Veteran's Day post.

I am just republishing the one from last year.







In Honor of Those I Love:


It is Veteran's Day

and 

no words can express the pure love and gratitude that I have for my favorite veteran's.

No words can express the honor or pain and no words can express the selflessness involved in their actions.

Thank you to all of the men and women, past and present who serve and protect this great country we live in.

My Dad 

My oldest brother

and my youngest older brother.

My oldest brother was able to spend time with us after the wedding.

It was a rare opportunity for us to catch up and one story blended into another until we found ourselves talking about our family and the role each served in the military.

My dad was 48 when I was born and 28 years separate my oldest brother and me.

There is a lot of family history that I was never privy to.

From WWII to Vietnam to Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm, my family was there.

One of the most fascinating details I learned is that my dad's brother and my aunt's boyfriend was on the 

U.S.A.T. Dorchester, widely known by the story of the Four Chaplains.

My uncle made it back home, my aunt's boyfriend did not.

I have always known that the men in my family were tough, with iron perseverance, but that story just reaffirmed what I already knew.

Thank a veteran today.

Your kind words are more powerful than you know.

Halloween

I'm not sure why the camera was being so finicky on color and clarity, but I'm just glad I was able to get a few pictures from the evening.

Costume 2 of 2 - my Little Bunny

Probably the best picture of the night.

Addie was being so silly!

Addie was ready to get the evening started!

We headed out to see Charlie's Mom

and 

then go by our local Publix for a few Halloween activities.

Addie was able to obtain a pink bunny nose and whiskers

and thought they were so funny!

The butterfly lady had Addie rather perplexed.

Then, we were back home to enjoy a night with family, Trick or Treating, passing out candy and dodging the onslaught of straight line winds and temporary power outages.

She really was happy, I realize it's hard to believe it.

Julien had a costume.

The costume that he begged me to buy for him.

It went unworn.

The bright side of it is that I was able to get a couple pictures with his adorable little face.

It appears I may have been hugging her just a little too tight.

Either that, or she was just disgusted with all the picture taking by this point.

Tucker joined us for Halloween!

He still hasn't fully recovered from surgery, but he was such a good dog and went along for Trick or Treating.

- He had surgery a couple weeks before Mom died.  He had a Grade IV acute luxating patella that required extensive surgery.  Poor little guy has been through so much in the last two months.  AND, he misses Mom tremendously.-

Addie had lots of play time throughout the evening and enjoyed having other people reorganize the pantry in her kitchen.

We have guests over - and then Addie puts them to work.

We had a wonderful Halloween - and are so thankful for the night with family!

Do what?

I am having some outpatient tests done this coming week, so late Friday afternoon, I got a call from the hospital for my pre-registration.

I got the call in the midst of trying to get Addie and me ready for Halloween, and was only half listening to the lady on the other end of the phone because I could have recited the questions for her.

She went through the standard list of questions, but her very last two questions of the evening, stopped me in my tracks:

Her:  "Have you had a fever within the last 21 days?".

Me:  Seriously, what the...?  "No ma'am.".

Her:  "Have you been exposed to Ebola within the last 21 days?".

Me:  "No ma'am.".

I was seriously waiting for her to then ask if I had had Ebola within the last 21 days, because I was going to reply that I was pretty sure CNN would have already notified her.

It's absolutely not a laughing matter, but it's also the last thing I expected.

Well, I know at least one local hospital has enacted their "Ebola Action Plan".