I heart my mom...

She is awesome!!  I remember being little and her dragging me all over to garage sales, flea markets, etc...  Unfortunately, I hated every minute of it.  But now that I love thrifting and finding treasures I cherish those memories as tragic as they were.  Now, every time we get together we are first in line when the doors open to our favorite thrift stores or garage sales.  It is a great time that we can share doing something we both love...  It is so fun to find things together and discuss what their original purpose was, wonder what the story of each item is... I love it. 

 Recently, on a trip to TN to visit my parents I confided in her how much I wanted, pined for, drooled over vintage pull down style school maps.  I told her how I loved them as a child in school - the colors, hearing them slap against the ceiling as they were put away after lessons.  Anywho, mom has been substitute teaching as of late, since she was let-go from her job of 25 years a couple years ago.  I told her to snoop around and see if she could find any.  

Guess what, today she came through for me.  Good old mom, they always do come through in the end, don't they?  Here are a few pics I was excited to find in my inbox this afternoon... And mind you, these were with the mops in the janitor's closet waiting to be trashed, all 3 of them... LOVE.THEM.AND.LOVE.HER.MORE!!!!!!  YAY!!!!!

I can't wait to see these hanging in my basement where the kids have a play area!!!!!  So exited!!!

Thanks mom!!!!  You are awesome!!! 

Peach Pickin'

A few weeks ago, the next door neighbors who we have been adopted by, invited us to go to the farm and pick peaches, blackberries and veggies!!  We trekked over to a cute "non-commercialized" family owned farm over in Illinois.  It was so H-O-T, but so much fun!!!  The boys had a blast and their favorite part was feeding the sweet little goats!!!  My favorite part was eating the home made peach cobbler that my mom cooked when she got here the following day!!  Oh and the home made mixed berry jam made by our sweet adopted next door grandma!!!  YUM!!! 

Family Fun

A couple weeks ago the boys and I (along with my mom) went to see the Cardinals play. It was BAA night at the park which meant that little RT got to parade around the field with the rest of his little league baseball team before the game! He has so much fun!!

I had one of the staff take this shot of the boys and I. Last time we went to a game here I was pregnant with little WT and Rt was just a baby and their daddy was still around. So we had a picture taken in the same exact spot as last time..... We had a new family member and had lost a family member... Things are always so bittersweet in life, aren't they?

Lazy summer days....

A fun trip to the local craft supply store and a few dollars later we are having at least an hour of fun today if I have any say about it.

As the boys were saying - "Painting is relaxing!"  And it kept them quiet for longer than an hour.  I think it is the best $4 I have spent in a while... I will for sure make this a weekly occurance...  YAY, for small victories!!!  My sanity thanks me!!!! 

Phew...

Summer is becoming a doozy, for me at least... Gone are the heaven sent 3 hour preschool breaks for mommy.  Gosh I miss those 3 hour windows a couple of days a week that I so much need to decompress from the kids.  I need my reset button.  I so desperately need that stinkin' reset button. 

Most days my life feels like groundhog day.  With no one coming home "after work" to break up the monotony, it is just one neverending day after the other.  Not much adult interaction and absolutely NO alone time (bathroom included) I just feel like my head is going to explode.  I know I need to just chill out, chillax, but I am having a hard time refocusing my psyche to get to that point.  It has to happen before I get to that stomping, crying, throwing my hands up thing because I think I scare the kids when I am puddling in the floor crying.  As strange as it may seem, once I do get that out of my system, maybe once every couple/few months I feel so much better.  Kind of renewed, cleansed, whatever you want to call it. 

I find that "year 2" is much harder than the 1st year since Shane has been gone.  I have heard before that this may be the case and by golly it is so far coming true.  I think now that things have calmed down and the shock has worn off for many that now most people not directly linked to our family have somewhat forgotten, or choose not to think of our loss anymore.  Isn't it odd after the storm how no one seems to remember except those whose homes were destroyed by the tornado?  Whose lives were and still are being changed forever, for better or worse.  I find I am slowly forgetting things, yet not one day goes by that I don't think of him.  The razor sharp memories are gone and replaced with dull throbbing painful memories that seem dreamlike.  I tend to wonder what parallel life I am living and whose life is this? 

Days, weeks, months, and now years are going by.  The boys are getting older, going through some pretty major milestone without their dad and it breaks my heart in a billion pieces.  But they are surviving, growing inside and out and hopefully becoming stronger, braver, more independant for that very reason.  We talk about their dad everyday and what he liked, disliked, how proud he would be, what he would do different or the same, where he is now, where we are all going to go when we leave this earth and how do we get there?  We are becoming better people because of this tragedy as most do, but it doesn't help the part where we all miss him like crazy. 

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

Just because most of our days feel like this.... 

or this...

or this...

I just love when they end like this... 

or this... 

To all the moms out there I just want to say Happy Mother's Day, because being a mom is the hardest emotional, physical and mentally taxing job in the entire world... Sometimes showers, eating and even using the bathroom gets put on the back burner to take care of these little munchkins.  BUT, it is all so well worth it.  The cuddles and kisses are the best pay a mom could ever ask for. 

(kisses to you and you!!)

So enjoy today, although it isn't much different than any other day beside the fact it is the one time a year society forces everyone to slow down and just saw thanks (out loud for a change) to all us moms!!! Because we do like to be noticed right?  Even if we do have throw up and poop on our shirts... :) 

    

View from my chair...

As I sit here crocheting I just wanted to share my little snippet view of the world... I love it and hope you do too!!!  

And a view of the front of the house...  Lots of hard work has gone into this.... 

Have a great rest of the week....