The Adventure Went on The Blog Fell Dormant!

Wow I can't believe I started a blog! I was gung-ho in the beginning and adamant that I was going to keep up with it and look at what happened! Life got busy and got in the way! Of course life is still busy, but as I was reading blogs of friends this morning I decided to quit reading their blogs and actually write something on my own page for a change!


The last time I blogged was in February... Pete was just 3 and John was just 1... now they are almost 6 months older! Time sure flies when you are chasing little boys around! So here is a little bit of what we have been up to since then and what we are up to now!


In March we went down to Freeport, IL to spend some time with my grandma (dad's mom) and it was a fairly nice day that day! So we went to the park (my favorite park) and played at the kid castle, and on the old fire truck they have there and most importantly, the boys got to eat lunch and spend the afternoon with their great-grandma! I can't remember anything else exciting that went on in March, see what happens when you don't blog for six months!



In April we decided to take up hiking as a family.... for Pete some of these hikes were more like forced marches... but boy did the boys sleep well after our hikes! We also celebrated Easter... we colored eggs, found baskets, went to Mass and had an egg hunt! And in April we were greeted by a strange visitor in our yard... a grouse. At first we thought wow... a grouse... not something you get to see ever, and according to guys who hunt, they are actually difficult to hunt as they never come out.... well now we were sure that there was something wrong with this crazy bird as it was following Pete and Greg around outside... thankfully it is now gone and we don't have to worry about it anymore!
May came around and we did some more hiking, my aunt Deb and Grandma came to visit for an afternoon, we went to Door Co. for Mother's Day (I had never been there before), and I was hired to help with the wedding reception of a family friend's daughter (who I grew up with). It was a lot of work, but one of the most beautiful weddings I have been to! I was exhausted! I found out just 2 days after the wedding some news... and the reason for my extreme exhaustion!


So that brings us to June! We are expecting a new baby! Of course my due date is the same as my due dates with both of the boys.... so another January baby possibly! So I am just getting used to the idea of being pregnant and John decides it is time to be free! He can now climb out of the playpen, out of his bed and out of anything we put him in to try to keep him from completely destroying the house! I am pooped! I think we managed to go to the zoo in June, but most of the month was spent chasing John or laying on the couch while he was calm to try to recover! Oh and Greg has been working like crazy! He leaves by 5am and returns home usually after 7pm (which means it could be 8 or 9).


And now we are up to date... It is July! Fourth of July weekend was spent in S. Door Co. with our good friends the Dellamaters! They have a great cottage right on the water. We ate and played, relaxed (a little), and just had a great time! Pete wants to go back all the time and keeps asking when we are going! We enjoyed the fireworks over the water and headed home for a day to recover before Greg went back to work! The 12th was my birthday and we had a small get together at our house which meant I cleaned and ran errands all day to get ready for my party.... that doesn't seem right, but I am just 28... it wasn't a big birthday or anything! Greg is still putting in long hours, I have been sick morning, noon, and night and I am exhausted! I am not sure how we will do it with 3 kids! Definitely going to be outnumbered, but we have done this before and I am sure we will do it again! Pete is so very helpful, so this should be a piece of cake ;) Talk to me in January to see if I have changed my tune!

So now I am mostly caught up on our adventures since February! Hopefully I can stay caught up, but if not, see you again in 6 months ;) Well I suppose I should do something more productive... I have a little boy who just informed me that he needed a bath because he stinks... I asked him what he smelled like and he said he smelled like pudding.... he also asked if I wanted to smell him... I think I am going to pass on that with my latest bout of nausea, but I better remedy the pudding smell with a bath! Hope you all have a great weekend and enjoy the adventure you are on!

No Nap Pete Strikes Again!

AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

No Nap Pete, as he is affectionately referred to when he decides he doesn't need a nap during the day, has struck again for the 3rd time this week... and it hasn't been a great week for that!

Sunday, John decided he was going to learn how to climb... so he climbed up on the hearth and touched the fireplace! YIKES! I was right there, but too slow. It was almost as if it was happening in slow motion too! I practically killed myself diving for him! He screamed for an hour and we couldn't figure out where he had been burned... his right hand was red, but not too bad, or so we thought.

He finally fell asleep and when he woke up he had a pea sized blister on his palm... so we went about our day, watched the Superbowl and hung out. The next morning we had hair appointments for the boys. Pete's 100th haircut (OK not really, but it seems that way) and John's 1st haircut. By this time the blister had grown to cover his palm and looked extremely painful. We decided after we were done with the haircuts that this was worse than we thought.

We decided to skip the clinic because they would just send us somewhere else. So, to avoid the extra copay we headed to UW Hospital ER because they have a Burn Unit there. The resident doc came in and didn't think it was a big deal but wanted to double check because John is so young. So then the head doc came in and looked at it and decided he was going to call a surgeon down to evaluate it.... WHAT! Well, she was nice, but seemed a bit new at all of this, so she did something very surprising... she called a burn unit nurse down. She admitted that they knew more than her and were more experienced! WOW, we were impressed! So the nurse decided to leave it be and if it popped we would have to clean it up... YIKES AGAIN! Luckily for this nervous mom, the blister started to leak just as we were being discharged. The nurse came back in and took care of it for us.

My poor little guy had to wear a dressing on his hand until this morning. They told us to change the dressing once a day... OK, no problem, with 2 of us it should have been a piece of cake! RIGHT! I think we forgot that he is a 1 year old... everything goes in his mouth... he pulled his bandage apart constantly. I was so exhausted just trying to keep him busy all week and keep his hand out of his mouth it was insane... and I just wanted to take a nap... however No Nap Pete struck again!

Well it is now Friday... John is no longer wearing a dressing and is using his hand more. It looks awful still, but the doc said it is healing nicely. This week has caught up with me and I needed a nap today. I also needed a shower, and maybe a break too! We were out of soda and therefore I have a massive headache probably due to a lack of caffeine and I am beginning to feel some numbness and tingling creeping into my arms and legs.... perfect way to start the weekend! Pete is wild and a bit slap happy due to the lack of nap, AGAIN. John is crabby as it is bedtime, and Pete has had me running back and forth from the bathroom all day because he also decided that this was the week to amp up the potty training and start pooping on the potty! He has started to inform me every couple of hours that he has a big poop starting to come out so we have to drop everything and run to the potty! I am extremely proud of him... but secretly wish he would have waited until next week (I guess it is not a secret anymore). Well that is motherhood I guess. Nothing happens in our own time... it wouldn't be an adventure otherwise.

I hope you all have a great weekend and a Happy Valentine's Day too! Don't forget to tell someone you love them... especially your kids if you have them, they make the best Valentines!

Protecting my Boys on this Adventure

Well, Birthday week has come to an end... we are still planning a very small party with a couple of the boys friends, but we are on day 9 of not feeling well in our house so it has been postponed for now. Both boys got sick on Pete and Greg's birthday and were sick through John's birthday and beyond. They are both finally on the mend after having ear infections, Pete with Strep and John with RSV. Try giving a 1 year old an inhaler... ha! And the "pink" medicine that they put flavor in to make it taste good... definitely does not taste good and just stains their clothes as they wriggle and squirm to get away from the medicine dropper you are forcing into their mouths! So needless to say it has been a long week and a half.

I really enjoyed seeing my boys have fun with the birthday festivities, but I am sure glad it is over. Perhaps we will think about timing of the year and what we have going on in a certain month when we plan the next baby ;) maybe we should shoot for April, June, October or November... those are fairly boring months for us, but then again it is nice to have some down time too.... I suppose this thought is for an entirely different post. :)

So now we are back in the swing of things and my mind has been able to focus on other things... I am done with presents and birthday cakes and cleaning up after all of it! I have been thinking about organizing, rearranging and redecorating... we have no money for that, but I have still been thinking about it. I have been thinking about life and where we might be in 5 years... probably with a couple more kids and a house busting at the seams (one can only hope) and then I start to think about money and how we will fit in a house the size of ours with that many kids and how we will pay for all of that as it is always a constant struggle now... but my husband reminds me that we have always been fine and that somehow God always provides for us.

Perhaps the main thought on my mind though has been thinking about how to protect my kids from "bad guys", as Pete would say, and trying to shield their eyes from things they don't need to see. And I am finding that even though I try very hard to keep them from seeing things I don't want them to see, they still see them. One example happened just yesterday... we were heading to Baraboo (I was taking the boys to Greg so I could go to the dentist) and we came upon two troopers and a Dells police officer with a vehicle pulled over. I noticed several pieces of the inside of the car on the roof (they had taken the inside panels of the doors out) and of course Pete noticed a "doggy"! "What is that doggy doing? Why is he walking around that car? Why is he barking and trying to get in that car?"

Yikes! What do I say? How do I explain that there are people out there who do bad things or dumb things... how do I explain what drugs are and that there are kinds of drugs that are not medicine... that the "drugs" mom and dad take are to make them feel better and that we get our medicine from our doctors... that is quite a load for a 3 year old, so I said, "oh that person must have lost something and doggies have really good noses and can smell things that we can't. So it is easier for them to find our lost things!" Yeah good one mom... now he will probably start asking our dog to find things for him!

I realize that I will never be able to keep them from seeing bad things, from getting sick, and getting hurt, but I have to at least try! That is, after all, my number one job! It is also quite an exhausting job too! So as this adventure continues and the world continues to be a bit of a scary place at times, I realize I definitely have my work cut out for me. I want to teach them how to be good, and caring, to be giving, thoughtful, gracious, humble, etc. There are so many things I want them to be... I guess I need to work on being better at those things as well and perhaps they will model my behavior as they grow up. It is easier to teach by example... gosh, being a role model sure is a tough job! Also, I definitely need to work on how I am going to answer the tough questions they come up with, but hopefully they don't come up very often. I would like to stick with the simple questions... and the ones that make me laugh and wonder where they came up with that... like last night when Pete asked me, "why do you have a mustache?"

After I got over being embarrassed, I said, "Mommies don't have mustaches... it is just light colored little hairs... everyone has little tiny hairs all over their bodies! If you think I have one then you must have a mustache too! And furthermore, the only people who can see Mommy's 'mustache' are those people who she kisses and gets really close to, which is you and John and Daddy." Good thing I don't go around kissing all sorts of people... at least I know these guys are stuck with me and my "mustache"! I am now looking for a way to get rid of my "mustache" though! Thanks Pete! Needless to say this adventure will never be boring and will definitely be full of laughs and lots of learning! I can't wait to see what they come up with next! Oh and please don't spread it around that I have a mustache! :)

The Birthday Week

I am the only person in my immediate family who doesn't have a birthday within a week of each other! So I am now in the middle of preparing for all of the festivities! It is absolute craziness... Greg and Pete's birthday is Sunday and my Father in Law John is Monday and then our little John Matthew is Thursday the 28th! We also have to make a trip to the cemetery to visit our son Paul's grave. He was born and passed on the 26th.

Okay so that is definitely quite a list of birthdays for one family, but in our extended family that is nothing! I am down to the wire... today begins the craziness... I have the rest of the morning and this afternoon to get it all done! I have to do dishes, laundry and the everyday household stuff today, and I also have to finish making all of the gifts I was planning on making to cut costs on all of the gifts that I would otherwise have to purchase.

Tonight is Greg's cousin Justine's birthday party... she is going to be 16 tomorrow! Then tomorrow night is the big January birthday for my family. We have my cousin Jake born on the 15th, my cousins Madie and Paige (both from different families and a year apart) and my niece Natalie on the 16th. We have Pete and Greg on the 24th as I mentioned previously and also my Aunt Patty. Her husband Larry is the 27th and then finishing off the month is John the 28th. Phewwwww! That is quite the list! Good thing we celebrated my Aunt Julie and Uncle Greg's birthdays earlier this month (they are the 8th & 9th)! I am preparing to be caked out!

Thursday I have my MOPS (Moms of Pre-Schoolers) group and then a dentist appointment (I have some cavities) so I will get a bit of a break Thursday evening... oh and we have a funeral thrown in there on Thursday as well that we have to juggle into the schedule. Friday may be a down day, but I haven't finished shopping for my boys or my husband... so my down day just may not happen! Saturday we were invited out to eat and Sunday is the big birthday for 2 of my boys! Pete also wants to celebrate with his friends Dewey and Joe with a Handy Manny party... so that is also in my future here in the next week or so!

*Sigh* I am tired just thinking about all of these exciting events! I also can't believe that it has been 3 years since my little Pete was born and a year since John was born. Their births were both different, but are still very vivid in my mind... I remember so many things from those days and I hope I don't ever forget... is that something a mother can forget anyway? In case I ever do, I think I will tell their birth stories again!

I was induced with Pete. We went in on the evening of the 22nd and they were about to start the induction and got me all hooked up to the monitors and said... "you are already in labor, you are 3cm dilated and having contractions!" Well I had been in so much pain with Pete with my gallbladder, that I didn't even notice. I had a pretty easy night, but then they got the pitocin going in the morning and I labored hard all day with him. My doctor finally broke my water because I wasn't progressing as fast as she would have liked me to and things started to move along. I finally got my epidural, and was comfortable until my diaphragm started to go numb and I was having a hard time breathing. I remember them putting the oxygen mask on me and that was about the time everyone came in to wish me luck before Pete came.

My Mom and Dad, Greg's Mom and Dad, my sister and her 2 little girls, Greg's sister and her husband, and his brother and his wife along with 2 of Greg's uncles and my grandma were all patiently waiting outside the door... yeah, that is right 14 people listening to me give birth! Well, the pushing took a lot longer than anyone thought so luckily they weren't outside the whole time! Pete was stuck! His head had gotten stuck at an angle and he wasn't wanting to come out. I started pushing at 9 pm and at that point we were all betting on if he would have his own birthday or not... well 9 minutes after midnight Greg got the best birthday gift ever! He got to cut the cord and I remember blood sprayed across the room. I finally got to hold my precious little boy and then 14 tired people finally got to see him too... and then they all headed home for the evening... or morning that is.

After they left Greg and Pete fell directly asleep together and they continued to work on me... stitches, trip to the bathroom... all the stuff they don't tell you about when you have a baby... the not so glamorous part! I still can't believe my boys slept through me screaming! So now I am a mother... if you are a mom you know that once you have a baby... all modesty goes out the window!

I wasn't worried about any of this once John was about to be born. We also went in to be induced with him on the 23rd.... what are the chances that both of my boys would have their dad's birthday... well you already know that didn't happen. I labored all day with him and at 5 pm my doctor came in and stopped the pitocin. She said I hadn't progressed and that we could come back and try again in a few days! WHAT!!!! I was so upset and angry. I worked hard all day to have this baby and I got nowhere! I did not want to leave the hospital without a baby! No one had ever mentioned that the induction wouldn't work!

So we went back on the 27th and tried again! I was not leaving without a baby this time! I labored all day and at 5pm my doctor came in and broke my water because I still hadn't progressed any farther than the previous time she induced me! Hello? Why couldn't we have done this the other day!?! Once my water was broken I finally started to progress.

This time it was just Greg and I and we didn't have a cheering section outside the door. I had my epidural and I couldn't feel my left leg at all (Greg was in charge of that leg). This time I knew what labor felt like and when I was ready to push I knew it. I went from 8 to 10 within a half hour and I was ready to go! I started pushing at 10:30 pm and then it was shift change! My new nurse just happened to be the same nurse who was there to welcome Pete... I felt some comfort in that because she is a tough nurse! She made you mad and made you want to get that baby out! I actually liked that and in the future if we have more babies, I hope we are lucky enough to have her again. So, at 12:22 am John decided to be born! He was only 5 minutes later than our nurse predicted and 2 oz off on the weight! She has definitely been doing this for a while!

So I now am the mother of two boys! John was such a sweet angel when he was born (he still is too)! He looked like a little cherub. And I had a much easier time with John, because he wasn't stuck... oh and I had done it before. My doctor even made the comment that he only left a skid mark on his way out. It certainly didn't feel that way, but I will agree that it was easier.

Well, a year after John and 3 after Pete... what a special time in our lives! We now have two boys! And Greg has 2 sons on or near his birthday to celebrate with! I couldn't think of a better gift to give him, however I hope we don't have any more the same week in the future.... our schedule is busy enough and quite costly so close to Christmas! But we wouldn't change it for the world! We are truly blessed with our precious little boys who have led us on this adventure! Happy birthday to all my boys... Greg, Peter and John... you guys keep me busy and keep me happy!

Thankful for the Adventure!

I went to a visitation last night... the visitation was for a former classmate of mine. We were not friends, but as classmates we had known eachother for many years and had classes together and lockers near eachother... so obviously this man was way too young to die at 28 years old. That in itself is sad enough... on top of it he lost his wife tragically in a vehicle accident a few years ago. The saddest part of his story however, is that he leaves behind a 5 year old son... parentless.

As a mother this really hit me. I have lost a child... granted I only met him briefly, and through all of the grief it was hard to even process that. I can't even imagine losing one of my boys at this point or my husband for that matter. I can't imagine what their lives would be like if I wasn't here. I don't even want to think about it, but with the events of the last week I have been thinking about it alot and as I started this blog, I have been able to reflect on the things that have happened in my life and in my life with my husband over the past 4 years.

Lately everytime I get dressed in nice clothes, Pete asks me if I am going to a funeral... sadly that seems to be the only time I get dressed up lately. My poor guy has had to deal with so much death in his short life... it is so hard to shield him from it. He knows about God and Heaven and who is up there and he talks about it alot. We pray every night and pray for all of our loved ones and those that are watching over us now. And we do what we can to assure him that we love him and that we aren't going anywhere and will be here for him.

Unfortunately I don't know if that is true... I don't know what the future holds! It is so scary, but I believe in God and Heaven and that we will see our loved ones again some day and that when someone dies it is not goodbye, but simply see you later. And unfortunately we don't know how much later! I am hoping to have an extremely long life! I have a lot to do and I am not done doing it! I plan on growing old with my husband and enjoying our kids (hopefully there will be more than just the 2) and I want to enjoy grandchildren! I haven't seen everything I want to see or go everywhere I want to go!

So I have been thinking about life and what might lie ahead and reflecting on the past. I am reminded to be thankful that I am alive and mostly well... I am thankful for my wonderful husband Greg and so blessed to be his wife and the mother of his children. My little miracles... I am so thankful for them as well... I had to fight to get them here and I am cherishing them every day! Some days all of the chaos and events of the day cloud my thankfulness, but it is still there and a simple "I love you Mommy" or a hug or an incredibly slobbery kiss clear up the clouds and I am reminded how thankful and blessed I truly am. I can't wait for all of the new adventures headed my way!

The Adventure... With Some Limitations

I'm back! I know you missed me and were just dying to read my next post! So I figured 5 hours was long enough to wait... okay, okay all jokes aside... here it is...

I was just working around the house... laundry, dishes, making beds, cleaning up the toys that I just cleaned up an hour ago, wiping noses, wiping bottoms, wiping up spills, refilling drinks, preparing snacks, cleaning up after the dog, and I looked out at our deck... there is so much snow on it and it is heavy. My wonderful husband needs to shovel that off! We have been so busy with everyday and it has been getting overlooked. So I thought it is our anniversary and I should help him out being the wonderful wife that I am and go shovel it for him...

So I put on my coat, my red and black checked mittens, and my wonderful winter boots that my husband got me last year for just this sort of occasion... I headed out and picked up the shovel and thought... "gee, this shovel is kinda heavy..." Well that was nothing compared to a load of snow on it! And then trying to throw it over the side of the deck... Apparently I forgot that shoveling is not something I can do anymore... I would love to be able to go outside and get something accomplished, but my body just won't let me!

My latest adventure has come and it has brought with it some major limitations! I do not really want to be on this adventure, but here I am... every day is a challenge and I am reminded every day that I now have limitations and I can't just do the things I want to do... I can't surprise my husband by shoveling off the deck for him so he doesn't have to when he gets home on our anniversary! Some days I can't get out of bed and on many occasions I have pushed it too hard and have fallen to the ground and can't get up... I am reminded of a certain commercial here... at any rate I am now on this new adventure that I am not excited about!

For those of you reading that do not know what I am talking about... here it is. In July of 2009, a week after my birthday, I was out on the boat with my family and I noticed that my hands were a bit tingly. I didn't really think anything about it because it went away. But unfortunately it came back... and it seemed like it was "spreading". I had numbness and tingling and pain! I had it in the hands and arms and in the feet and legs. I went to the doctor (not my normal doctor) and he started to run some tests. He ran tests for lymes disease and MS (multiple sclerosis) and some other big bad things... all negative.

The trouble got worse and I went back in a few days later, and this time I was told by a doctor (also not my regular doctor) that I must have some anxiety and depression... of course I have some anxiety! And I am a bit depressed that something terrible is wrong with me and what if I can't take care of my family..... something I have fought so hard for!?! But I did not have any of these issues before I came in and couldn't get any answers from this doctor and I wasn't taken seriously!

So I went to the computer and I started to research symptoms and diseases and syndromes and big bad horrible problems and I knew that this was not in my head and that something was definitely wrong with me... I called the ask a nurse line at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and I told her what was up... her response, "I don't want to scare you, but you need to get to a big city ER as soon as possible!" Finally I was taken seriously and really scared!

At first they thought I may have a syndrome called Guillain-Barre and it causes the muscles in the extremities to cease up and stop working as it travels toward the core (lungs and heart)... death if not treated! So we decided to not mess around with this anymore and headed to Mayo Clinic! I was up all night explaining my symptoms over and over to neurologists..."and then what happened?" I think all neurologists are trained to ask the same questions in the same way... and they can make it frustrating by asking everything over and over... it certainly doesn't help when you don't feel well. I ended up in Rochester at the clinic for about a week. They ran all sorts of tests and didn't find much... my neurologist thought I must've had a virus that caused my problem and that it would be a couple of weeks before my nerves healed and got back to normal.

Well then I started falling down. My legs would just stop working... so I finally got to see my own doctor and she thought it sounded an awful lot like MS, but MS is sometimes hard to diagnose especially in the early stages. Apparently they can't diagnose it until there are lesions on the brain... great! So now I head to Madison to a new neurologist who runs all of the tests I have already had and a few new ones. He decides that I have some small fiber neuropathy and has no answer as to what is causing it... so here I am today frustrated with no real answers.

I am feeling better for the most part, but I have struggles every day! Like today, not being able to shovel, and not being able to lift the laundry basket to carry it to our room to put away, and the worst limitation is sometimes not being able to get out of bed at night when John is crying. I am so thankful for my wonderful husband who gets up with him at night so I don't have to. He is tired, overworked and underpaid, but not underappreciated! I just wish he could be home all of the time when I need him... but he can't, so I am slowly trying to adapt to this new adventure and trying to realize that I need to slow down sometimes and take it easy... oh and ask for help... but that is a whole other issue. I will continue to work with a neurologist and am praying for some concrete answers, but for now I am just taking everything in stride and trying to stay optomistic that this adventure will come to an end and I can get back to something more fun!

Always Lift Eachother Up

I started blogging yesterday and was very excited about it! I received some really great feedback from everyone who read my adventures and I couldn't seem to sleep last night thinking about what I would write about today... or perhaps it was that my husband was out of town and I had an almost 3 year old who did not want to go to bed and when he finally did, he insisted on sleeping with me. I gave in as I did not want him to wake his almost 1 year old brother, who would then also want to sleep with me and instead of getting kicked in the head from both sides... I opted for just one side!

So each time I found myself crowded to one side of our king sized bed or I had just received a nice blow to my side... I was awake and I was thinking about all of the things I could write about and wondering if anyone would want to read about them. I thought since today is the anniversary of the day I married the most wonderful man, that I would write about him again... or about us and always making sure that you lift your spouse up and never tear them down!

Well, here comes some words of wisdom... don't worry I didn't come up with this all on my own. But a very wise woman, I call her Grandma, told me these words... "always lift your husband up... never tell anyone anything bad about him... pretty soon you will only be complaining about all of the things that bother you, and your friends will only know the bad stuff and see him in that way..."

My grandmother experienced something like this when she was younger and newly married. Some of the women in her neighborhood would get together once a week to talk and play cards and all it ever turned into was a "bash your husband" event. She would never say anything and that made the other women try harder to get her involved in the "bashing". Soon they became jealous of the relationship she had and eventually she stopped getting together with them.

My grandmother always lifted my grandfather up... as a child I thought he was larger than life... he was so full of life and love and laughter... she always pushed him to play games with us and take us fishing and to be our hero. She spent time in the background and I never got to know her and what she was all about until my grandpa passed away and I was older. Now I talk to her every week and I have learned so much about her that I never knew. And the many ways I am like her. I too have been "accused" of never talking bad about my husband and for being mushy or gushy about him. I have been told that someone is jealous of me and the relationship I have with my husband. Not my intention to make someone feel that way at all, but I am certainly not going to change. I am truly in love!

I am in no way saying that my husband or I are perfect. We are just like anyone else... sorry to burst anyone's bubble... everyone has disagreements from time to time... but if that is all you tell anyone about that is all they will know about. So, I have always made sure to never speak ill of my husband... I do have to admit that there really isn't anything worth mentioning to anyone anyway.

So a very good piece of advice from my grandmother... I was already practicing this and didn't even know it. I guess I really didn't have a reason to tear my husband down... I find him to be such a special man and he has never been anything but kind and generous and has given me everything I ever wanted and everything I didn't even know I wanted!

As I write this I see now that I have a lot in common with my grandma (my dad's mom) and I am finding out as I have gotten older that she knows what she is talking about. She is a no nonsense kind of woman and isn't afraid to speak her mind... and she doesn't let anyone walk all over her... I find myself struggling with that in my life however, and I have sometimes been a doormat, but hopefully I can begin to move past that with the help of my wonderful husband and with expressing myself through this blog.

As a final thought for this post... always lift eachother up... there really isn't any reason to tear your best friend and soulmate down. Make your relationship one that people will want to emulate. It isn't difficult to do. If you are not in a relationship keep this in mind for the future... life is so exciting when we can share it with someone who lifts us up and that we can lift up too! Alright I am done being mushy for now! I just can't wait for my husband to get home tonight so we can celebrate our anniversary. I am truly blessed!