Growth of children

Have you ever noticed that kids grow overnight?

Yesterday morning I get Harleyann up for school and I give her some clothes to put on, only to realize that the shirt that did fit her no longer fits and the pants are too short. WTH!! When did she grow she was just wearing these clothes. Did she grow another inch overnight? Seriously it seems like one day you see them and then the next they are bigger in every way. Taller, more filled out, smarter and it just doesn't stop.

This however has been my discovery with Harleyann all her life. Literally one day this will fit and the next day it is too little.

So I checked the sizes of what I had put on her, small, 7/8. So I am going through all of her clothes and realize she maybe has 3 outfits that fit her now. Wow, guess I know where I will be spending some tax money at.

My baby is growing up and she is growing up to fast. She is not longer a small, she is a medium and I am going to cry because my little girl is growing up.

And her toe is at the end of her shoes, so we get to go the next size up on that too.

I wonder if it will be this way for JJ too. Why can it not be a progression you know instead on one day waking up and your wardrobe no longer fits?

14 Years of Wedded Bliss (Most of the time) A look back

JEFF & I WHEN WE WERE PRONOUNCED HUSBAND AND WIFE!

Wedded Bliss! What does that mean exactly? After doing some research and thinking I came up with married with perfect happiness and serene joy. Now does anyone live everyday of their married life perfectly happy? I would have to say no. I would like to think we could all have marriages like in movies and on TV, but I am afraid that is just not so. A marriage is full of high points and low points and while in the last 14 years of marriage I can honestly say that while we have had a lot of low points, they have mostly been high points. I am so happy with my life and my husband. It may not be perfect and it may not be where I want my life to be but we together are working on it and one day we will be where we picture our lives.

So for a look back over the past 14 years, it all started on a Friday evening where we were to get married around 7pm by a Justice of the Peace. I had spoken to him earlier in the day and everything was set, so I thought. He never showed! While Jeff and I both are Christians and were brought up that way, we are of different denominations and I did not want to get married in a Catholic Church and he did not want to get married in a Pentecostal church (he says they scare him LOL). I broke out in hives as we tried to reach someone to come marry us. My preacher was with his son while his wife was out so he couldn’t come. Luckily a very dear friend’s cousin was a preacher, and me broken out in hives and Jeff trying to slice his throat with a razor shaving (ha-ha they so say that marriage is a man’s funeral right?). So she called and he agreed to come and marry us. So at around 9:45p I was able to walk my dad down the aisle (instead of him walking me ROFL), as he was very very drunk. So finally around 10p I became Mrs. Leslie McGuinn. I was 19 and Jeff was on the cusp of 19. He turned 19 the next day (27th). I know many people said it wouldn’t last and that we would be divorced within 6 months. However, I knew the day that I met Jeff that he was the one, my soul mate, the one that was meant for me to spend the rest of my life with. Yes we rushed but that is ok because we just wanted to be married and begin our life together. We have come so far since that young and naïve couple. But we are more in love today than ever before.

We almost divorced after 5 ½ years but we found our way back to each other and ever since our relationship has taken new shape and meaning. We have been threw a lot and managed to make it through it all stronger and closer than before. I think the point in our relationship that changed us and matured us was in 2002 after 6 years of marriage when our daughter was born at 24 wks. We learned a lot about life and ourselves and our marriage during her 176 day NICU stay. We learned to be patient with each other, to communicate with each other, to be each other rock, to be each other’s best friend. We hoped together, we prayed together, we cried together and we laughed together then and we still do now. We have brought our 2 lives together as one. We have a partnership, a relationship. We are lovers, best friends and parents. We have in the past year added a 4th member to our family when in March we had our son. Him and I almost died and had we not have been at the hospital we would have and I am so blessed to be here today celebrating today and every day the life that I have and the love that I share with a wonderful man, husband and father. I am extremely happy that 14 years ago I married my soul mate and best friend to share the ups and downs of our lives. While I am sure we will have many more low points in our life together, I know that we can make it through stronger and closer than ever before.

**Jeff, I love you with all my heart and soul. Not a day goes by that I do not think God for you. You are my rock, my lover, my heart, my soul and most importantly my best friend. I am forever yours and so very proud to be your wife and the mother of your children. May we have many more miracles, blessings, laughs and happy memories together!

JEFF & I TODAY AFTER 14 YEARS OF MARRIAGE!

Still happy with each other and still in love after all these years!!

My political statement in videos

These videos are how I feel right now and I think that HANK WILLIAMS JR should be a spokesperson cause he is good at it and he can do it in song.

Lifestyle changes

So I have decided to make a lifestyle change. I am in so much constant pain, which I know will never go away, thank you EDS, that I thought I would try and shed some of this weight to see if I could tolerate the pain more. It is a drag being exhausted all day due to the pain. It is a drag to wake up in the morning and have a hard time getting out of bed because I can barely move. While I know that I will always have the pain and I am always going to have those days, I want to learn how to control it more and to help myself to be more active for my children's sake.

So I am going to stop drinking sodas all together (even though it is an occational thing now). I am going decrease the amount of butter I use. I am going to not use margarine, that stuff is like one ingredient away from being plastic. I am going to make healthier eating choices, I am going to choose fresh and frozen veggies over canned. I am going to choose to make my own flavored rices over rice a roni. I am gonna choose to make my own noodles over pasta roni. I want to pretty much go as fresh as possible. There are somethings that I obviously will have to buy, unless someone wants to by me a noodle maker.

So with that and using my Wii Fit 6 days a week hopefully I will start shedding those pounds.

I want to learn to make healthier chooses and I want my children to learn good eating habits.

It's been awhile

So it has been awhile since my last post. Between school and the baby it has been crazy these past ten months. I so cannot believe that my baby will be ten months old tomorrow. Where has the time gone, in just 2 months he will be a year old. I have started a second blog for those whom may be interested in viewing it and following it as well, you can view it at http://thehumorinchildrearing.blogspot.com/




So school is going pretty well I have a 3.2 GPA, yay. I am pretty happy with that. I just started my sophomore year 2 weeks ago and with it I have bumped up from 2 classes to 3, it has been a bit more difficult but still easy enough to handle within the allotted time frame of completing the week’s worth of assignments. I am currently taking HTML for Beginners, Personal Finance, and UNIX systems. So far the hardest class is Personal Finance, there is just so much involved and takes up a lot of time as you pretty much have to write a paper a week in the class. But it has been fulfilling and I have already learned so much from the class.



With school and the baby my writings have been placed on the back burner. I know that I should make time to just write but I am one of those people who believe that I am the one whom was a part of creating my children and carried them and I am the one responsible for them and take care of them. I do not pawn them off on someone just so I can go out and have a good time. I know I need to take time for myself but I really feel like if I were to leave my children with someone it is like pawning them off and pushing them to the side. I really need to realize that is not the truth. Now I do on occasion get my wonderful in-laws to watch them. We did get to go out last Friday and Jeff’s parents watched the kids and kept them overnight. It was the first time that I had been away from JJ overnight. We had a good time and it was not as traumatic as I thought it would be. I let myself have a good time without worrying about the kids, which with me is a very hard thing not to do, even when I know they are safe.



Well I best close this for now, the baby is crying. It is nap time and I really need to get on the Finance class work. It is due in by midnight tomorrow.



I wish all of you a blessed, fun filled weekend.