Snow!

The snow is here. I'm not happy about it. It's too early, I like for the snow to show up in time for Christmas, not Thanksgiving. Here we go...

Date night

I have been married for 9 1/2 years, next month will be the 12th anniversary of our first date.

Tonight I am going out with my husband to dinner & drinks with some friends. He made all the arrangements and I'm not sure where we are going. The truth is I don't care. I'm going to fix my hair, put make up on and try and find something nice to wear and enjoy eating my meal without a child hanging on me. I'm going on a date with my husband. I'm pretty happy about that and I'm happy that I'm happy about it. Makes sense - right?

It's been one of those days...

Some days it just seems like too much. I get so irritable I don't even want to be around myself. I feel like I'm always regretting every decision I make. I tell myself that I need to just live in the here and now and be more confident with my decisions but it's easier said than done.

Ever since my Dad passed away I sometimes get swept away with the memories. It's like I start thinking about him and I feel like I can't breathe. I've been thinking about last Thanksgiving a lot and I keep remembering answering the door and finding my Mom & Dad there and I knew almost immediately that something was wrong. That's the day I found out that he was sick again. The next day he walked with me to take Alex to school and I told him that he had to be o.k. because Jude was so young that he wouldn't remember him. My Dad said that it didn't matter because he got to meet Jude. That was the first of many tough conversations that I would have with my Dad.

Did you vote today?

Last night I asked my 7 year told daughter if she wanted to wake up early and go vote with me. Much to my pleasure she said yes. I wasn't sure if she would follow through but sure enough at 6:45am she was standing by my bed telling me to get up. We cast our ballot at approx 7:45am. I was so proud of her for putting forth the effort. I've spent the last few weeks explaining to her that there was a time in history that certain people weren't allowed to vote because of their color or sex and that there are still lots of countries in the world that people still don't get to. Regardless of who wins this race it is history in the making. I only hope she remembers it.

When I was a teenager my Dad watched the 6 O'clock news everyday, without fail. By default I had to watch the news or at least listen to it. My Dad was tricky - he would bring up topics from the news that he knew I was pretending not to listen to and he would play the devils advocate. No matter the subject he would take whatever side he knew I would disagree with and drag me into a discussion. To an outsider it would seem like an argument but we both knew it wasn't. I found this to be annoying when I was younger but as I got older I realized that he was forcing me to become informed about current events and today I am thankful. I would give just about anything to be able to discuss this election with my Dad. I miss him so much. I hope I am instilling in my children the values my Dad taught me.

Daddy - I love & miss you!!

Trick or Treat

Yesterday was Halloween and the kids had so much fun going from house to house. Karlie came over and went trick or treating with them. We got really lucky this year and the weather was warm! I can't remember the last time we had a Halloween this warm. Our pumpkins were absolutely amazing! Jason can have all the credit for that. This is the third year in a row that he has really gone above and beyond on the pumpkins. I'd be willing to bet that my daughter had the only pumpkin with Hannah Montana carved in it. Here are some pics to enjoy. Jude got tired during the night and wanted someone to carry his bucket and then wanted Uncle Wayne to carry him. He also insisted for a while that Karlie hold his hand. It was so cute!