Monday, May 26, 2008

What else?

So as if yesterday was not enough excitement in our life for a while, today was just nuts. Thank you Megan for reassuring me about the fact that Sylvester not being the aggressor. I didn't think about it that way.

So this morning, Allisyn and I were meeting the people at the mall for them to look at the 4Runner. They are supposed to get back to me, but I'm not sure they were that interested. Michael was helping some friends move, and our alarm goes off. The back door popped open because we didn't deadbolt it. The back screen door still has the small doggy door from the previous owners, and the cats have been known to run out it. Luckily, they were all still inside.

So then we were getting ready to go a cookout at a couple's house we go to church with. I was out front moving the car seat from 4Runner back to the van. Michael was loading the van. He left the door to the garage open thinking Allisyn was going to follow him out. Ummmm, no. She shut the door and locked herself in. Guess who didn't have keys. Guess who didn't have an extra key outside the house in case something like this happened. Guess who was majorly freaking out on her husband. Michael called 911 and they dispatched the fire dept. We could hear them, and we heard them drive around our neighborhood for 3 minutes trying to find us.

At first Allisyn stayed by the door and I was talking to her, trying to get her to unlock the door. She was getting very upset. Then she went to the back door, where Michael was thinking about breaking a window. So I went to the back and was talking to her and he went back to the garage and busted the door frame and broke in. It should be fun to fix. The most important thing is we got in to Allisyn and she was ok. So learn from our big mistake... have a key somewhere outside.

Then we got everyone ready and we were on our way. We had a really good time. Allisyn, being the little water bug that she is loooved the little kid pools. She liked the big pool with daddy too. She also had fun playing in the sand box, guess what we are probably going to be getting Alli this summer? Little pool and sand box!

While we are there, we get another call from the alarm company. The back door came open again, because I didn't latch the dead bolt when I came in from the whole thing earlier. Again, thankfully the cats were all there. It took the boys a few minutes to come out, so I went outside and noticed the dogs were gone. The fence between our house and our neighbor's has now been down for a week. The dogs must have busted the latch on the little gate that separates our yard, and then went out our neighbor's open gate.

With the help of our wonderful neighbors, we found them. They were camping out in someones yard in some shade. Michael fixed the latch, so that shouldn't happen again. It was definitely the kind of day you wish you could start over. It ended well though. I got to go to my yoga class. I stopped by KFC to pick up dinner at the request of Michael, and one of the employs asked to look at the 4Runner. Another guy came out with him and looked it over and told him it was a great deal. So hopefully, between the two people who looked at it today, it will get sold.

And now it is time to go to bed. Michael is working a double tomorrow and I'm sure it will be a long day for me and Allisyn.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

UGH!

So those of you know me well, know I am an animal lover. We have a small zoo consisting of 4 cats and 2 dogs. Sylvester is our oldest cat. I inherited him when Micahel and I got together. He used to be the devil. No, really. The first couple of times I met him, he tried to rip off my arm. Then he had to stay with my a few weeks while Michael finished up his 3rd year of Pharmacy School and then moved to Tulsa. He pretty much stayed under my bed and would attack me while I fed him if I did not shut him out while I placed his food in his bowl. Michael's friend's and brother are still leery of him because they know the evil that lies within.

I often joke and say I brought Jesus into his life when I encouraged us to adopt Puck and Paju. They were two kittens we rescued that had been dropped off with their mom at the vet clinic we were getting Forrest, our lab, treated after we first got him. After we got him the company of the kittens, Sylvester calmed down A LOT. He became nicer in general, he wasn't a defensive over his food and in the 4+ years he has had buddies, we have had minimal incidents of biting. They have not gone away completely. The last BIG attack was on me a little over a year ago. I told the cats to SHOOOSH because they were running through the house making a lot of noise and we had just got Allisyn down for the night. I guess I startled him because he attacked hard, and I have a scar.

So naturally when we got pregnant with Allisyn, we were concerned. Other incidents happened while I was pregnant with her that made us have to rehome Forrest's sister Athena. That incident took us from 4 dogs to 2. I won't go into details. Allisyn will be 2 in July and before today, Sylvester has nipped at her about 4 times. Usually the result of her bugging him. I believe that little ones need to learn boundaries. Puck will hit Allisyn pretty hard on the head when he wants to be left alone. Usually she laughs, sometimes she gets upset, but he doesn't really hurt her. Tiger will bite at her, but NOT hard at all. She always thinks it is a game and it continues until Tiger gives up and goes away. Paju will just leave if Alli bothers her too much.

Then today happens. I was on the phone with Michael and Allisyn was sitting in the floor playing with Sylvester. I wasn't watching the whole thing, so I do not know how rough she was getting, but the results are not pretty. He bit her pretty hard breaking the skin. I know that it could have been worse, but I am still just so mad. He had sat there and taken her "play" for a good 10 minutes. If he was getting annoyed, he could have just walked away. So what do we do? Allisyn's feelings were hurt more than anything. She has loved on him since it happened, so she obviously isn't scarred. I have always told Michael that if he ever got her this bad, he was going to go. But how do you rehome a cat who has a history of a devil cat?

He is one of our four-legged fur babies, and we want him to be happy. I think my main concern is as he gets older, he is going to be more likely to regress back to his old ways when he gets upset or startled. If it were just Michael and I, we would just live with it, but I have got my babies safety to think about. I know Michael won't let me rush into anything, but I know it will be on my mind a lot. Prayers are appreciated.

On a brighter note, someone is going to look at our 4Runner tomorrow! Hopefully they will like it, and want it.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

As Promised!


I know I need a cheerier post, so here are the pictures spending the morning at the farm with her Pap-paw, great-grandpa, and great uncle Kelly.


She was tickled pink to be able to hold the puppies! She was a little unsure about the lamb at first, but ended up enjoying playing with him too!




Kelly tried to send a puppy home with her, but we knew that Dad would not be as happy about it!



It was a little difficult to get her to understand why she couldn't chase the the chickens.







Can we say pure elation?
They were leading her around the yard a little bit. Hopefully next time my dad will have gotten a saddle and they can really go for a ride! It was a very fun experience for Allisyn.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

97 years

Today would have been my great-grandma's 97th birthday. Thankfully I have been pretty busy and haven't cried over it too much. Her funeral service was Thursday and it really helped me to really feel confident that she was ready to go. My cousin Aubrey played the piano and sang. She was accompanied on the guitar by a good friend of hers. My cousin Jana gave a speech. I am very proud of them, and I know that my great-grandma is too. My step-grandma also sang with a trio that she sings with. They sang a song my grandma asked them to sing. My great-uncle Lloyd delivered the message. I am sure that is a hard thing to do to preach at the funeral of a parent, but he did a wonderful job.

We were wondering about the fire codes with the amount of people that were packed into the small country church. She was a tiny little woman who touched the lives of many. I thought it was amazing to know that she was the last charter member of their church. Talking with my grandpa and daddy, and listening to my uncle Lloyd's sermon, there is no doubt in my mind that she was ready to go be with the Lord. My only regret is not going down to see her like I had been planning. I feel guilty because I know that she has been ready, and that it made her so happy to see me and Allisyn.

I will never get the smile and the way she would always say, "Why, it's my little Joy." I haven't been smaller than her in years. She maybe came up to my shoulder, but I was always her "little Joy." She always said that Allisyn was the most beautiful baby. She also always commented that she had never seen such a better behaved baby. This always meant a lot to me because she has a lot of great and great-great grandkids! It will be very hard for me going out to the farm and not being able to go and see her, but I am so thankful that she is such a better place. I know her last little while here on earth was not pleasant and now she is not suffering.

Friday, Allisyn and I got to spend the day with my daddy and grandpa. My uncle had some puppies and a baby lamb that Alli got to play with. I got some really cute pictures that I will try to put up soon. She just thought it was the best thing in the world. Then Pap-paw (my dad) went and got one of his horses! She got to sit on him a few times and they led him around the yard a little bit with her on him. OH MY!! She had a blast.

My brother-in-law Chris, his wife Karen, and other BIL Steve came up this weekend to help us try and finish the baseboards and such. Surprisingly enough Allisyn has been sleeping through all the hammering going on. She is starting to wake up now, so I'm going to wrap this up.

Happy Birthday Grandma!! We love you and are glad you are up singing in heaven!!

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

A rough couple of days.

Happy late Mother's Day to all you awesome moms out there. Mother's Day for me was bitter sweet. Allisyn started the day with tons of energy as her daddy was leaving for work at 630. Fun stuff. She was her bubbly cheerful self, and momma just wanted to crawl back in bed and sleep for a little longer. She made her transition to her new class just fine! I was very happy. Thankfully she fell asleep on the way home from church. Unfortunately, she woke up from her nap sick. Running a fever and coughing. Not fun.




Monday, we were having a semi-rough day with her being icky and my daddy called to let me know that my great-grandma went to be the Lord. She had been suffering for a while and she was ready to go. About a week before they moved her back to her own house so she at home when she passed. I know that she is a better place, and that she was ready to go. I know that she has be reunited with my great-grandpa, whom she has missed dearly since his passing 11 years ago, but I am still very sad.



She was a steady rock for me while I was growing up. I was very blessed to have her and my great-grandpa living across a pasture while I was growing up. I could go over there when I needed to get away from my mom, which was often. My great-grandma always knew how to make me feel better. She was a strong Christian woman, and a wonderful example for me. She was very devoted to her whole family.

There is a very childish and selfish part of me who is very upset that she will not get to meet Piper when she comes, but for the most part I am very happy that she is now in a better place. The first picture above was when Alli was around a year old. The last picture was this past Christmas. These are all her great-grandchildren minus my sister, and her great-great grand baby from my grandpa Charlie. It will be very strange going home and not going to see her when we visit, but I know she is in a much better place.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Third Trimester!!

Today marks the beginning of the third trimester of my pregnancy!! YAY!! Only 3 more months! We are still hoping she comes a little early in July. Well, mainly ME. Michael just wants me to be happy. We still have not started getting Piper's room ready. We (mainly me) were attempting to get it ready to tape off, but Michael found the TV to be more interesting.

I'm loving our van!! Allisyn really likes the DVD player. We are hoping she won't think she needs it on all the time, but it has made the transition from the 4Runner a smooth one. She has another big transition coming up tomorrow. She is moving up at church. She should have moved up last time, but there wasn't room. Hopefully it won't be to hard. This is Micheal's weekend to work so it will be just us getting through it. On a positive note, she made it through Toddle Time last week. She cried when Michael dropped her off, but she was happy when we picked her up.

Well, we are off to do some shopping. She is growing out of her clothes and shoes. Seriously, her cute little sandals, she wore for like 2 months. Last Sunday we noticed her little heel was hanging off the back of her shoe! Aren't we supposed to notice these things before they happen?

Friday, May 9, 2008

Forgive me, I'm going to get political

I was going to get political. I got an email and thought the picture I commented about had a snoped link to confirm it. But the link was for the other part of the email. Sooo, I can not leave my rant up there without having confirmation that the picture was just timed badly.

Sunday, May 4, 2008

A birthday, new van, and double digits

Last night we celebrated Michael's 30th Birthday with his parents and some of his friends. His birthday is on Tuesday and this weekend was his weekend off so we had a small party with some of his friends from OU that we still hang out with. We are the only the ones with kids, but everyone adores Allisyn so she gets lots of attention. His parents came up a little early and helped us with a lot of the prep work that we thought we were going to do Friday night but didn't get to it because we were in Norman looking for a van.

We have made a VERY financially peaceful decision with our van. It is 2003 Honda Odyssey. It is a loaded 2003. It has the built in DVD player and seat warmers and other cool stuff. It will cut our one remaining car payment in half! Now we just have to sell the 4Runner and all will be great! I just finished cleaning out the inside and working on the carpet today and got it posted online to start with.

We have now reached double digits in the countdown to Piper's arrival. 97 days to go today! I need to hurry and get my registries started because people are asking. We still have a LOT to do and I know the rest of the time is going to fly. I had my glucose test on Friday. I'm sure it will be fine. Allisyn stayed with a friend and thankfully did very well. She cried when I left and I felt awful, but she did not cry for too long and ended up having a great time.

The wood floors are doing great! Allisyn likes getting my shoes and dancing around the floor. She likes the noise! We still don't have the baseboards and reducers on yet, but my awesome BIL is coming back on Michael's next weekend off to help us with those. Did I mention that he is awesome?

Allisyn and I made our first trip to the zoo for the spring the other day! It was windy and their were a lot of school groups, but it was still nice to get out. We got our membership renewed so we are set for another year.