In the Morning...

Too tired.... So in the morning, after I drop Bella off at school, I will type up the blog I have been promising.  I just got off the phone with my Mom, and she was in tears so I have lost all momentum.  Instead, I will end with one of my favorite pictures from Bella's field trip to Patterson Farms last Monday to pick strawberries...  Team Lava Strawberry which consisted of  Lily, Bella, Joey and Luke Johnson, yes...the Luke Johnson :)

Time for a glass of wine I think

xoxoxxxxx

Mother's Day Weekend

Yes, I know we are way past this, but I am going to start with this weekend and then move forward...

I had a fantastic Mother's Day Weekend.  It started that Friday when we picked up Bella from school in Pap-Pap's truck.  Vince and I traded cars with him for 2 reasons, 1 so we could go to IKEA to get Bella a new bed, and 2 so Vince could get some truckloads of mulch this weekend from the recycling center.  After school, we went straight to Ikea, had dinner and then picked out B-bo's new bed.  She chose a black metal daybed that we can eventually put a trundle underneath.  Only thing, we forgot to buy the slats for it that night, so we used the box spring with the twin mattress for the time being which made her bed really high up.  Once it was time for bed, and we had her all settled in, she looked so tiny under her comforter, just a little head with crazy hair sunken into her pillow was visible.

Now on to Saturday... While Vince got ready to head to the recycling center for his first load of mulch, B-bo and I got dressed and first we went to Ikea to get her some slats for her bed, and then we went to Build-a-Bear.  I promised to take her during Spring Break, but that never happened because I had to help my Mom with my Grandmother in Cordele.  She chose an adorable little lamb that she named Livia.  After a quick trip to the Lego store, we had lunch at the food court and then took a ride on the merry-go-round before heading back to the car to go home.  When we got home, Vince was working on his second load of mulch and I helped him finish up.  He ended up doing 3 truckloads, and our backyard just keeps looking better and better!

Sunday... Happy Mother's Day!  Vince cooked me a yummy breakfast of scrambled eggs, cheese grits, bacon and biscuits...delicious!  Since I was such a good Mom this year, they surprised me with a Nook Color!  best.present.ever!  I downloaded the Hunger Games Series immediately, but waited to start until I left for Hattiesburg on Wednesday.  After lunch, Vince took Bella to the Nature Museum so that I could have a little quiet time to do whatever I liked.  I watched a little tv and messed around with my Nook.  That thing is so cool :)

Now, I must take a break and head to Noodle Night.  Once I return, I will launch into everything about my trip to Mississippi to visit Papa.

Random littles...

Bella has been bringing up a baby sister again.  "When am I going to have a baby sister Shequa?" is a frequent question as of late.  My response, "Well, you know honey, if I get pregnant it could end up being a baby brother."  Her response, "Not if we adopt a baby girl from China.  My best friend Mattie (a boy) has a sister named Katie and they got her from China.  We could just go to China and pick out a sister for me." In other words, she has definitely thought this out.  I mean DAMN.

I talked to Papa today.  He was a little slurry because of the pain meds, but sounded like Papa.  It helped to further imprint his voice in my brain because I don't ever want to forget it.  I can still hear my Dad clear as a bell saying "I love you more" and no one can erase/write over/ damage that copy <3

Vince moved some more hostas last night, so Bella did some more worm hunting.  She set up a bigger worm motel this time, and good thing because Vince said some of the worms were so big/fat that he thought a few were snakes.  And they were wiggling so much they were jumping off the ground.  Crazy!  We are going to have some rich dirt in our vegetable garden with the addition of all these worms :)

I was the first one to wake up this morning (very rare) and I had the dishwasher unloaded and breakfast ready for Bella before my first cup of coffee (even rarer).  I woke up a sleepy little girl that slept in nothing but panties last night.  I swear she grew overnight.  She was all stretched out with her blanket wadded up mostly near her head.  Her feet are beginning to stick out now from under her blanket, she is getting so big...

Time for me to get dressed, but not before I reheat my coffee and shuffle Bella to the bathroom to brush her teeth.

Have a great Wednesday <3

xoxoxo

Haircut

Yep.  It was overdue, and past my usual 2 year mark.  It was time to cut my hair, 12 inches to be exact.  I think I lost about 3 lbs :)  Anyway, I realize it's still about 3 colors, and as we get closer to Andrew and Sarah's wedding I will take care of that.  I also got my eyebrows/lip waxed.  I looked like a freak when that was over with, but a freak with a sassy new haircut <3  And to answer your question, no, I do not know why Bella is staring at my boobs.  I don't know why she does a lot of things that she does.  Happy Tuesday!

Nice Reminder.

I'm not going to lie, it's been kind of a sad day.  I have been really focused on Papa, and to help keep the tears at bay I threw myself into cleaning the house.  It almost sparkles :)  After Vince got home, Bella took a bath, and then they worked on designing a website she had drawn at school today.  Really, website design at 5?  Anyway, while she ate her dinner, Vince and I watered the hostas and the vegetable garden and let the dogs run around while we did it.  After Bella ate all her dinner, Vince promised she could do a few tree swings before teeth brushing time.  The dogwood over the blue bench is perfect for swinging like a monkey and is one of Bella's current favorite things to do.  Tonight, I caught a great shot of her swinging in her Sleeping Beauty nightgown while Vince sits in as a spot.  Priceless.  It was a nice way to end a long day... smiling with my family <3

Again...

I have another matter of time situation on my hands, and this one I am surely not happy about.  Papa is dying.  My Mom is with him now, he has had a biopsy and we will know the results this afternoon.  Essentially, Hospice care is being discussed and we all know what that means.

Papa has made his wishes clear, and he has said he is ready.  He's 89, he's tired, and in my heart I know it's time, but that does not make it any easier.

My Mom will know more this afternoon after she has talked with his doctor.  My two wishes right now are that I get to talk to him one more time, and that he does not suffer.

heart = broken

Just Charming.

Our anniversary weekend was most excellent.  It started off Saturday morning with coffee and yard work, two of my favorite things :)  While Vince and I worked in various areas of the yard, Bella went from the front to back yard doing her thing while Switzerland the watch cat followed her around.  Around noon, we took a break for lunch, and we all got cleaned up.  Vince and I did a bit more work before taking Bella to her grandparent's house for a sleepover.  We dropped Bella off, but not before having a celebratory mojito with Jamma on the back deck.  Bella put on a short tap performance while we sipped our drinks and enjoyed the beautiful weather.  Once home, we had a couple of Jaeger shots each to get the party started!  Although, all the yard work from earlier had caught up, and we decided to take a short nap before heading out to dinner... I woke up at 3 a.m. so looks like we were not going to make it to dinner.  That's right, we fell asleep at 7 p.m. on our anniversary and had one of the best nights sleep in a long time.  worth.it.

So when we woke up Sunday morning, we had some coffee, and then went to walk around our yard to discuss our next plans of attack.  We ended up digging up most of the Hostas from the front yard and moving them to the backyard for a natural border between our grass and natural area.  I also started the fire that we had set up the night before and it burned all day long.  Pap Pap and Jamma brought Bella home around 10:30 and she jumped right in to help with the yard work.  While Vince was digging holes for the hostas in the backyard, Bella was digging through the dirt in the wheelbarrow hunting for worms.  When she would find one, she would carefully pick it up and put it in her red bucket full of moist dirt that she was calling the worm motel :)  By the end of the day, she had found more than 20 worms, and being the gardening connoisseur that she is, released them into our vegetable garden just under the Catnip plant.  She had a blast hunting for worms, and is ready to do it some more this weekend <3  Once finished, we all got cleaned up and decided to have a late lunch at the Flying Biscuit.  Afterwards, we went to see Rio in 3D and it wasn't bad.  Very colorful, great musical numbers and pretty funny, plus Bella really liked it and I guess that's really what matters.  After dinner and bedtime, Vince and I watched another old James Bond movie before calling it a night.

It was a beautifully perfect anniversary.  A lovely way to celebrate a very special day <3