Friday, December 16, 2011

accepting the positive

Please note the following post is reflection, resolve and acceptance. Sometimes I just need to write.

Life in my world is changing. Change is hard and I have been fighting it. Kicking and screaming, fighting it. Honey Buns is giving up the team. Brings tears to my eyes. Because I love the team. I am a great coach's wife. In a way, I was born for this life. I understand it and I enjoy it.

He says he is done. It is not public knowledge yet...but he will resign from coaching at the end of the season. (keep the secret!)

In a twist of fate, the athletic trainer quit in September, and Honey Buns took over the job in the meantime. He has decided to do this full time. Still in athletics, but without the travel, without the recruiting, without the drama and without the stress. He will continue to do both jobs next semester (trainer and coach) but in August...just athletic trainer.

He has been tossing the idea around to get his doctorate for about 3 years. He is applying for admission in January to start school in July. He is jazzed about it. I am happy for him. So happy that the spark is back about something. So, So happy about the spark. It has been gone from him for far too long.

So that means that in the fall, one will start Kindergarten (gasp!) and one will start doctorate program (yikes!) And I had thought that we might start saving for a big trip with no more daycare bill...silly me!

I am having to be supportive again. The role I have not really excelled at in the past. It is going to be a hard couple of years of keeping things going. The program is 2 years with 1 month on campus in July and rest of the program can be done online. (a total of two July's on campus) July is Sweet Pea's birthday, July is our anniversary, July is special...Why July?

I know, I can do this. Those July's will go fast. I can travel, I can visit friends, I will be busy. I will see Honey Buns more, he will be home, he will be able to spend more time with Sweet Pea. Athletic training will work better with the family life I want. I have the perfect job for this. Very flexible, very understanding. But I am bored in my job. I need new goals, I need some vision, I need a spark. I need to figure out a direction to go with my job. It is a very open-ended position and I need a new 5 year plan!

I know this is positive change for my husband and my family...but the team, I will miss.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Jolly Santa

We visited Santa. And our black friend went to. They got some good shots...and some that look like this.




And this...

But mostly this one is my favorite.


preview



I just ordered my Christmas cards! You can expect a little bit of this to come in your mailbox soon!
p.s. this is just a preview...I didn't select this photo for the card.
another p.s. I had to make 3 cards because I couldn't decide.
and another p.s. I am only sending you one of them. too bad.

Monday, November 7, 2011

another good weekend!

I read lots of blogs...I mean lots. And on one recently, the blogger wrote how they were commented that they must live a charmed life. They only blogged about the good stuff.

I do that.

I don't want to write about the bad stuff. I don't want to remember the yelling (and I do alot of it) I don't want to tell you that I haven't deep cleaned my bathroom in...I can't remember when... or that my kitchen floor needs mopped, horribly. You also don't want to know that I changed my shower curtain and threw away some shoes that hurt my feet.

So I tell the good stuff. So What!

We went to "the town that loves purple" because Honey Buns had a conference on Sunday. We went Sat afternoon and got a hotel room, swam in the pool, went out to eat at a sports bar so he could watch the football game and Sweet Pea charmed the men at the next booth into giving her a tattoo for her cheek...which did not impress her father (he was not rooting for the purple team) but she had fun. We didn't stay for the game and left when our meal was over, easier with the little one. Back to the hotel for more swimming and more football watching. Guess which one I got to do...yep...swimming. Sunday morning we dropped him off and went back for breakfast and more swimming. (who swims in the hotel pool at 8am...it was us, for 2 more hours of swimming) then we got showered, checked out and went to get lunch and ate it on campus with Honey Buns and went to the zoo. He got done at 3pm and we were headed for home. It was the perfect get away...mostly because the weather was wonderful for the zoo and the hotel pool was nice. The hotel was almost sold out, so we got a king suite with a sofa bed. Sweet Pea was so excited that her bed was both a sofa AND a bed. It was so cute.

I never get the food at the baby barnyard. I always gloss over it...not for us...blah, blah. But yesterday something happened and I had a quarter...so we got the food for the goats, sheep, etc. And we are feeding them and they are swarming around...you know, you have been there...and a sheep is eating from Sweet Pea's hand and he bit her finger. Didn't break the skin or anything serious. But her finger got pinched from his teeth.

And she says to me...I thought I liked sheep, but I don't. You just never know about sheep.

Cracked me up. We washed her hands real good and she has a little water blister. We left shortly after that incident. The fun was over and it started to cool off, we needed snacks and we were tired.

Honey Buns has taken a second job and this weekend was so needed. I know it sounds all hearts and roses...but...We are going into the holidays where no weekends are ever free and after the new year hits...he is working every Saturday night till April. I am trying to be glass half full about this. I pledged my support...in this project. We are going to make it through this rough patch, I am blessed that Sweet Pea is now 4. I am blessed that I have a flexible job. I am blessed that we are going to have extra dollars this year. I am blessed that Honey Buns is a go-getter. I am blessed that when the semester ends in May, it will all be over.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

4 is why people have babies

We had a great Halloween. Sweet Pea went to day care, I went to work, then I picked her up, got her dressed up, we trick or treated my office, she went to school, trick or treated the town square, then I picked her up we visited some special people (and the team) then back to day care for that party...then we trunk or treated the church and back home to trick or treat the 6 neighborhood houses...and home sweet home.

The age of 4 is why people have babies. Because 4 is so much fun. We have horrific fits and episodes...but the good times are so good. Like when you are in young love and everything is rosy...that is 4 for me. It is just what I have been needing. Honey Buns is busy...like he has a second job busy, and I am spending all my time with Sweet Pea and she is actually someone I want to spend all my time with. Not like when it was the trying twos and I was seriously in need of a coffee break every two hours with her...or like when she was a newborn and I was so tired I couldn't even spell my name. This independent 4 year old I live with is just the best thing in my life right now. And life is good.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

getting what you want the sweet pea way

My darling Sweet Pea has figured her way around her cheapskate mother.
Yep, she is smarty pants!

Saturday the American Girl catalog came in the mail. We pour over it, never throw it away, hide it in our room...I don't really mean "we" more like she. I usually try to throw it away every chance it happens to be laying on the floor...but that is another story.

She has been wishing for, begging for, dreaming about this and this

Saturday she started counting her money to buy it.

I told her to quit counting ... it was too much money and she didn't have enough, and neither did I. (I know, debbie downer moment)

She trumped me. Can we write Santa a note and tell him to bring it? I again acted negative about it all.

But not her, she got out scissors and glue and cut up the treasured catalog, glued it to a paper and put her name on the bottom. Now he will know exactly what she wants. Stuck it all in an envelope, which we put in a safe spot so that when we see him we can give it to him.
(and this is where I was done being negative, and was very proud of her problem solving)

And you know what...Now I have to buy it. Because when you ask Santa...he delivers.
Damn.

Monday, October 17, 2011

fashionista

I have been trying to lay out the clothes the night before, with the pretense that it saves time in the morning and less drama.

it doesn't

Some mornings it creates more drama
Some mornings it creates a huge fight
Some mornings the mom stomps off
Some mornings the kid wins

That morning was today.

I shopped on my birthday and bought a cute dress that works for warmer weather, but when you layer a white long sleeve t-shirt under was very cute for fall. VERY CUTE
But Sweet Pea hated it. She hated the layer look, that I designed, She hated the t-shirt, She hated the whiteness of the shirt. She hated it ALL.

I started slipping it on, and she said, what? WHAT? is this just white? Everyone will think I am ugly and PLAIN. I told her, just wait for the dress. She hated it more.
I ripped it all off, threw it in a pile and told her to figure it out herself.
(I know, who is the 4yr old?)

She came out in her new halloween shirt, butterfly skirt, brown leggings with mushrooms and flowers on them, cat and dog socks, black shoes...it actually matched suprisingly well. I was shocked, but didn't say anything. Too much pattern for me. The leggings were a little much, but I told her she looked pretty. She even had me do her hair in a ponytail.

Guess I can't shop for her anymore, alone. Wonder if I can get the tags back on the dress...because I don't think she will EVER wear it.