Garage Talk & Pumpkin Time

Garage Update -

I talked to the builder for our garage and he said that he will be out sometime this week. I need to get a "before" picture of the back yard before he starts any work. I have been waiting for Gary to clean up a little back there before I took the picture. Hopefully he will do that before the builder comes and finds our backyard in unworkable conditions...LOL!

Pumpkin Time -

About a week ago, we took Alyssa to the pick pumpkins. She had so much fun. Of course, I have some pictures to share.



Alyssa picking out her mini pumpkin. Just perfect for her size!


She loved this wagon so much. She threw a temper tantrum when we had to leave it behind.


Alyssa and Daddy petting the animals they had there. Alyssa thought they were puppies and kitties. It was too cute!




I love this smile. It still melts my heart!!


Alyssa has been picking up words lately, but she still won't say the ones that I repeat over and over and over again...LOL. I don't know how many times a day I repeat the words "milk" or "juice" and she still refuses to say them. But I said "sausage" today and she repeated it without hesitation....what the heck is up with that...LOL! She also said "cheese" when Gary had the camera out and I said "say cheese". It was really cute. Today she was hugging me and cuddled with me for about 10 minutes. I really soak that up, because those moments are so far and few now. I just love hugging her and rubbing her back or playing with her hair. I cherish those moments!!

For Gary

The other day while reading through all of the blogs I read, Gary was sitting on the couch and was asking why there were different songs on peoples blogs. I told him that you could pick a song and have it play every time you open the blog up. He asked me why I didn't have one on my blog. I told him that because every time I try to go and search for a song, I just can't find the right one to put on my blog.

So, today I went searching for songs to put on my blog...again. This time I thought with Gary and my 4 year wedding anniversary right around the corner, I would play our wedding song.

"From This Moment On" by Shania Twain was Gary and my wedding song. We both fell in love with the words and what it meant for us. Every time I hear this song, I always think back to our wedding day and how perfect everything was. I think back to Gary and I dancing our first song as husband and wife. And often times, I will get goosebumps and teary eyed. This song will always remain special in my heart. I hope I will always feel goosebumps when I hear it.

I love you, honey...I hope you like the song I picked for my blog!

Concerned for my father

Wednesday was my dad's birthday. He turned 49 this year. I called him and asked him if he would like to go out to dinner on Sunday with our whole family (well, just our immediate family which includes my sister, her boyfriend, my 2 stepbrothers, my stepbrother's fiance, their 2 kids, Gary, Alyssa, me and my stepmom). At first he agreed and then later called me (about 5 hours later) and said that he really didn't feel like celebrating. I asked him why and he said that he has some things going on and he just didn't feel like celebrating. I felt really sad for him. I asked if he wanted to talk about it and he said he couldn't because he was at work. I haven't heard from him since. He is a busy man. He works 2 jobs and is involved with his AA groups.

My stepbrother's fiance and I are pretty close. About a month ago she questioned me about my dad and stepmom's relationship. She asked me if my dad had said anything to me. I told her no and that my dad isn't a very good communicator and that he really keeps everything to himself. I asked her what my stepmom had said to her and she was pretty quiet about it. All she did say was that my stepmom said that my dad is gambling again and it is not good. I think she had held back because she didn't want to get in the middle and have me go back to my dad, which I totally wouldn't do that to her or myself really. I have to admit that it is really bothering me that my stepmom is telling her all of this stuff and I know nothing. Granted, I don't have the relationship with my stepmom that my future SIL has with her. My stepmom actually hasn't seen Alyssa since June. I know the phone works both ways, but exactly, the phone works both ways. My future SIL did say that no matter what happens she wants to always stay close with us and that we will always do things together. She also said that it would be sad not to do Christmas brunch every year like we normally do with my dad and stepmom. So, my stepmom is talking about divorce, obviously.

I feel so bad for him and for them. I know they don't have a normal marriage. My dad works a lot and he is very busy. It is hard for me to get a hold of him half the time. My stepmom deals with depression and doesn't like to go to anything involving my dad's family. I truly hope that divorce really isn't in the cards for them, but if it makes them both happier, then I guess that would be the answer.

I have talked to my mom about this, although I knew she would have nothing good to say. And even though she didn't bash him like I thought she would, she just claimed, "that's your dad".

Another thing that bothered me about my dad is that I found out he isn't taking his diabetic medication. He said his doctor has moved out of state and he needs to find a new doctor and hasn't done that yet. So, he isn't taking his daily medication forcing to go to the bathroom about every 10 minutes. That worries me too.

I was tagged!

I have been "tagged".

The instructions were given to me by Laina.

THE RULES
1. Go into your archive.
2. Find your 23rd post.
3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
5. Tag five other people to do the same.

Ok, my 23rd post was "Boo at the Zoo". The fifth sentence down says "The zoo did a really nice job of putting it together".

That is strange that my 23rd post was from about almost exactly a year ago. We plan on going to Boo at the Zoo again in a week and I am really excited since Alyssa will be older this year.

Now, for five people to tag...

Christina
Kether
Diana
Taylor
Julie

Have fun girls!

Picture Comparison

I thought I would post some pictures of when I was little and of Alyssa. I don't have many pictures of me when I was little because when my parents got divorced most of my baby pictures went to my grandmother's house. Then when I was about 12, my grandmother and grandfather moved to Georgia and so did the pictures. She said there were probably boxes more, but she gave me a few to take home with me. I think she looks more like I do when I was a little older.

Here is me at about a year old:


Here is Alyssa at a year old:


Here is me again. I am not sure how old I am here, but I am thinking probably 3 or 4:


And here is Alyssa about a month ago:

He has left me

Gary has left me to go on a 4 day fishing trip with his dad. I am very sad that he is gone for four days. He left this morning at about 9:00 am and won't be back until Thursday.

We have only been apart one other time when Gary left for one night. And that was before Alyssa was around.

Tonight my sister is going to spend the night with us and tomorrow my mom is making dinner for us. So, I think we are pretty well taken care of.

I just hope that I remember to feed the fish. I never feed them, so I am not used to doing it at any certain time. Once I killed my sister's fish a long time ago when I was supposed to feed it while she was on vacation. Hey, at least I remembered to feed the dog, right...LOL!

Bye Bye Binky??

For the last couple months, I have been saying that when Alyssa turned 18 months old, we are going to get rid of the binky. We have successfully cut the binky down to naps and night-night only. We did that a few months ago and it has been working great. She even knows when she gets up from her nap or in the morning to hand me the binky so I can put it away until the next time.

Today, I decided what the heck. Let's see how Alyssa does if I don't give her the binky when I put her down for her nap. It was funny at first because I laid her in her crib and gave her a kiss and told her to have a nice nap. She sat up and looked at me like "aren't you forgetting something?!!?" I turned on her lullaby CD, gave her the blanket and walked out of the room. She did whine/cry/whimper for like 15 minutes, at which time I was in my bed laying down listening to her on the monitor. For the whole 15 minutes, I thought to myself, "I should just go give it to her" and "she does only have it to sleep". But, then she stopped and she fell asleep. Is it really her time to give up the binky, or was it just luck this time? I think we are going to try again tonight for bedtime.

I admit, this does make me sad. I like how she finds comfort in her binky. I like how babies have binkies and she was my baby. It makes me sad that this too is just another moment that makes her a little girl and not a baby. I also admit that I am happy. I hope that this can be this easy. I hope that Alyssa can find comfort in something else, like her blankie or a stuffed animal instead of the binky.

This is the latest picture that I have of Alyssa and her binky (and me)!



Hopefully it is bye-bye binky, bye-bye!!