First Day of School

Every year it happens - Every year I look forward to it - Every year it does not go the way that I plan it. Yep, today is the first day of school. Katie is in 10th grade and swore that she would NOT go back to Palm Beach Central. Sarah is in 8th grade (the last year of middle school - boo hoo!!!!!). I can remember just like it was yesterday going to Sarah's graduation from kindergarten and crying like a baby!!!!! I don't know where all of the time went.

First thing this morning, we are awakened by Katie telling us it is 6:00 a.m. How can this be when my alarm was supposed to go off at 5:50 a.m???? No way - Katie waking us up????? Well, we had remembered to change the time on the alarm clock but not to turn it on. Hopefully tonight we'll turn it on too!!!! Katie was dressed, looked good, clean and had a great attitude. All summer she swore that she would NOT - NO WAY - ABSOLUTELY CAN'T MAKE HER - go to that school and she was happy and looking forward to her first day of 10th grade.

Sarah on the other hand was quiet and not happy that her summer vacation was over. Who would have guessed this??????

Everytime I think I have figured them out, they surprise me. I hope that they both have a wonderful day and that things are much better this year.

Summer needs to end

I'm at work and my cell phone rings - loudly. Did I mention I no longer have an office - I sit in a cubicle where everyone can hear everything - It is Sarah - Sarah has been told not to call unless it is an emergency. Work is crazy right now!!!! You guys be the judge if this is an emergency - She was calling to let me know that Katie was squirting water all over her and could I make her stop. Well .... I'm at work - How am I going to make her stop squirting water all over my clean house (yes, the house is clean 2 times a month and this is one of the times)? Oh well, school starts on 8/16. I might live through this. I keep thinking that things will get better - Is this one of life's little moments?

The Doctor's Visit

Monday, June 22, 2009 was the date of Katie's first "female" doctor's appointment. Both of us were dreading the day. I was dreading the day so much, I begged my sister to take my place. Of course, she said "no way" and she was right. Katie had a 9:00 a.m. doctor's appointment and I did get John to come with us (for my moral support). After waiting in the lobby for only a few minutes, they called Katie in. I told Katie to go in by herself, get weighed, etc. and if she really needed me, to just ask them to get me. Of course, I was hoping that she would NOT really need me. I don't remember having my mother with me when I was being examined!!! As luck would have it, she asked for me and I had to go into the little room. Walking to the examination room was like walking into the dentist knowing you are going to have a root canal. You can't get out of it and you KNOW it is going to be awful!!!!!!!

Our appointment was with the PA and she was very patient and explained to Katie everything that was going to happen. She showed us all of the equipment and explained that all female parts look the same. It was very informative and to tell you the truth, I learned a lot. After much urging, Katie agreed to let this procedure take place. Then the PA pulled out the stirrups and Katie decided "NO WAY". After much convincing, much yelling, even some crying the examination was over. The poor PA practically ran out of the room!!!

While John was driving us home and asking why I looked so pale and was so quiet, I informed him that Katie had "lost her mind" in the doctor's office. At that, Katie comes to the conclusion that she "might have overreacted just a bit". Who would have thought it!!!!!!????????

Just today, I said to my sister that it will be amazing if I live through all of this and she agreed. As my mother has said a million times, raising children is the hardest thing you will ever do.

Wish me luck that I get through it!!!

Lets Just All Get Along!!!

Just found out that Katie will be moving home. There are so many different feelings associated with this. When Katie is happy, she is really happy but when Katie is unhappy, she is very unhappy! I hope and pray that six weeks has been enough time for all of us to have licked our wounds and now we can go on as a loving family!

I have heard for so many years that raising teens is very hard. I never believed that it would be this hard. I love my girls more than anything or anyone in the entire world. I love my girls more than I ever imagined. When one of them is hurting, I am hurting!!! I realize that all parents feel this way!

Wish that I had a crystal ball and could see that this will all work out. I have been told that one day everything will be fine. Lets hope that "one day" is now. I have told myself through most of this past six weeks that things will work out in God's timing and I just needed to go with the flow and let Him take care of it. I have no doubt that the Lord is watching out for us and this is just another step. Without my faith in Him, I would have definately fallen a part a long time ago!!!!

I appreciate that Beth and Sean let Katie stay with them for the past six weeks. I know that it was a sacrifice and it is a testimony to their love for her and for us. I am sure that Katie has learned alot from Beth and Sean and I also have no doubt that both Beth and Sean have learned a lot from Katie. Maybe these past six weeks will be a time that we all look back on and talk about for years to come.

I have the best family and friends in the world!!!!! Thanks for all being here for me!!!

Humility and Pride

I am sitting at work this morning - over an hour early and I get an e-mail from one of the attorneys here. He is young and looks like Gomer Pyle. He is in essence a real dork. He is asking me to do something "first thing this morning". My first reaction is WHY IS HE ASKING ME TO DO SOMETHING FOR HIM? WHY CAN'T HE GET OFF OF HIS "YOU KNOW WHAT" AND DO IT HIMSELF? DOES HE KNOW WHAT TIME I AM SUPPOSED TO START WORK? This attitude of mine is what gets me thinking, what kind of person am I really!!!! If I were a good person, I would just do what he needs and forget about it. Instead, I sit here at my desk, steam, and think that he has NO RIGHT to ask me to do anything for him.

Yep - The truth is - I am wrong. He has every right to ask someone for help when he needs it. I am no better than he is! I am realizing every day that I have real issues with humility and pride. Just another thing that I need to work on. Oh, well - I'll add it to the list. One day, hopefully, the list will get shorter.

Another of life's little lessons.

The booger fish

We have a 50 something gallon fish tank in our bedroom. The fish come and go and sometimes I get attached to them - (Yes - to a fish). Well, our tank had turned into a tank of four fish. Two catfish that John had purchased to eat all of the crud off of the bottom of the tank, (catfish can get big. When we purchased them, they were tiny and they grew big and fast); an algae eater to clean the tank and my little booger fish.

Friday night after playing pool with my family until 1:00 a.m. I come home to find that my little booger fish is no where to be found. Upon closer examination, I find the tail of the little booger fish sticking out of the one of the catfishes' mouth. HOW GROSS!!!! DISGUSTING!!!! At 1:00 in the morning, all I could do was turn off the light of the fishtank and go to bed hoping that I could forget all about the situation. Life can't be that easy, I awaken Saturday morning, jump out of bed, turn on the light in the fish tank and what do I see????? The same exact situation, poor booger fish has gotten stuck in the catfishes mouth. As soon as John got up - he, being my most wonderful husband and not wanting to listen to me complain anymore - picked up the catfish and got the fish out of its mouth (I think plyers were used). Now the canal in the back of our property has three more fish (2 catfish and an algae eater). The fish tank has been cleaned out - no fish whatsoever- and I will make sure I talk to someone that knows about fish before putting anything else in the tank. Poor booger fish!!!!! John says that it is the circle of life - I say it is disgusting.

Another one of life's little moments!!!

Loving Friday!!!!!!

Another Friday - People always say that Saturday is their favorite day but mine is definately Friday. There is so much anticipation on Friday. Tonight my father gets his POOL TABLE!!!!!! He has wanted a pool table for such a long time!!!! We have all wanted him to purchase a pool table for such a long time. We are going to go over to his house and enjoy the new game room tonight. My parents have recently purchase a house that is great for the ENTIRE family. A big pool - a hot tub and now a game room. We should call it Club Hubbard!!!!

Tomorrow, we have absolutely NO plans. That happens maybe once every couple of months. I want to sleep in and then we will just be!!!! What a concept. Nothing important on the agenda. We might go shopping, we might go out to lunch, oh the possibilities are endless!!!!

Sunday is the only day that there are planned activities. We have church and then every fifth Sunday of a month, our church has a Fifth Sunday Feast. Such great food and friends. Looking so forward to it.

Oh, I just love Fridays - there is so much to look forward to!!!!

Cell Phone Problems

Yesterday my cell phone died!!! One minute it was working well for me and the next - nothing. The battery was charged - It hadn't fallen into water - it just was dead. Oh well, in our house we have plenty of extra cell phones. Both of my girls have upgraded their cell phones and I could just get one of their old ones. I explain my dilemma to my wonderful husband who happily (or so it seems) gets one of the other cell phones and puts my cell phone chip into it. Nothing can be that simple - Now I have none of my precious pictures and none of my phone numbers. I have plenty of children's phone numbers as those are the telephone numbers that were in the phone, but no - no numbers that I might need to call.

You would think that this is not such a big deal but it is. I had never written any of the phone numbers on paper. I had never memorized any of them. They are going to have to be recreated. Let me tell you, this has been a lesson learned. Technology is wonderful until it crashes. The best thing is to have information on paper also. Hopefully, I will learn from this!!!!

Another of life's little moments!!!!

Memorial Day

Can't believe that it is Memorial Day. How could the weekend be over soooo soon? It was just Friday (a second ago) and I was driving home from work anticipating the long weekend and now we are getting ready for the upcoming week. How I love lazy days like I am anticipating today to be. Hopefully, it will be a day of relaxation, music and just family time.

Since it is Memorial Day and we should remember our loved ones that are gone, I can't help but think of both of my grandfather's, my grandma, Brad, and as silly as this seems, my dog, Buttons. Oh, how I miss all of them!!!!!!! Such great times that we had. They remain alive (in a sense) as long as they are remembered!!!!

This weekend has been a blur of activity. We have had a terrible drought and Saturday morning I awoke to rain - lots of rain. How exciting!!!! I got up, walking toward the kitchen and what do my ears hear? Plop - plop - plop - No - not outside but in my dining room!!!!! Fortunately, none of my furniture is ruined and my handi husband says he can fix the roof. Just a year ago, this leak would have ruined my day but since that time, I realize that - through tons and tons of lessons, that it will all get handled and it will get handled better, when we stay calm. Not saying that I keep this calmness all of the time but I definately am getting better at it. I said to my father a week or so ago that I just hated all of the drama. He started to laugh. I used to be the drama queen! Hopefully, I am getting better at staying calm. Life can be hard but if it was easy all of the time, we wouldn't learn anything at all, would we?

Hope you all are having a great - relaxing Memorial Day!

And a Blog Came to Life........

I never - and I mean never ever - would have thought that I would create a blog. Both of my sisters have created one and I go on them every day (well, almost every work day). Sometimes there are updates, other times to my disappointment - Nothing. It is a great way to keep in touch in a very busy world. I'm not sure if I have much to say in this blog, I hope that I am interesting to some degree - We will just have to see!

Today, is Saturday, May 23, 2009 - around 7:30 a.m. Today is my father's birthday. My sister and her family have come into town from Orlando and it will be so much fun to see them. We will meet my two sisters, their families, and my parents for a BBQ later today to celebrate. Unfortunately it is pouring down rain here. Lets hope it does NOT continue. Even if it is pouring down rain, we will all have a great time because we will all be together and it has been a long time since we have all been together. That is the real point of this blog - It is not the big things that make it all worth while, it is all of the little things. We could plan this BBQ for my father' s birthday for a month but the real fun of it all will be just being with each other. Laughing, telling jokes, telling stories, just smiling at each other.

When I was a kid, Christmas was the best time of the year. I looked forward to that one day for months and months. I would wake up at 2:00 a.m. and beg my sister to get up with me (It was morning!!!!) so we could go see the presents. No way was she getting up at that hour!!!! Eventually, I would persuade her to get up - usually several hours after 2:00 a.m. but also several hours before my parents wanted to get up. We would go into the living room where my mother had left the tree on all night (My mother always understood the magic of Christmas). There were presents everywhere!!!! It was magical. My point is that it was the expectation that made it so much fun. Yes - Christmas is wonderful - Presents are wonderful - but the real wonder is in the expectation. Every year I try to give my children a Christmas like my parents gave me. I'm sure that I fall very short. I want them to have those wonderful moments in their childhood like I had.

I have two wonderful teenage girls - They are works in progress. I was watching a program on parenting just the other day and this wise woman, who had several grown children who had grown up to be wonderful adults, said that there are three stages to raising children - The beginning, the middle, and the end. So true.

In the beginning, they listen to everything you tell them. They think that you are so smart, you are so pretty, you are just so amazing. No matter what stupid thing you do, they think that it is wonderful. You hope and pray during the beginning time that you are molding them into the kind of people who will be productive and happy as adults. You hope and pray that you are setting the kind of example that every mother should set. I look back now and realize that I fell very short. I can honestly say that I gave it my all.

Then comes the middle. I am now living in the middle times with my two angels. This is the time that they realize that you really are not as smart as they had thought. They see every mistake that you make and remember every mistake that you ever made in the past. They are somehow so much smarter than you are now. I have become one of the worst people in the world for my 14 year old. To her, I am a horrible, abusive person and she wants nothing to do with me. Once in a while, we have a conversation and a little bit of the relationship that we used to have in the beginning comes to light. I look so forward to those little moments with her. I hope and pray that we can one day - sooner rather than later- come to a better place. I love her and miss her very much. My 13 year old, fortunately, still wants to be with me. She and I read together, watch TV, do lots of mundane things together and laugh a lot. Hopefully she will not hate me, but if she does, I have to keep telling myself that this is the middle and the end will come.

Lastly, comes the end - This is where the fruits of all of our labor will take place. Hopefully, your children will realize that you did your best - that you always loved them and still do. This is the time that your children come to visit you (maybe with their children). This is the time that they actually ask you for advice and they take it. This is the good time.

I have realized just by writing this, my first blog, that it important to try to enjoy every time. The middle may be hard but there are SOME good times in it. Again, lets just enjoy the little moments!

This is all I have to say for my first blog - Hope it didn't bore you too much!