Backaches, Birthdays And Cookouts

Well it's been a long time coming, but a post is up.


I'm very happy to say that my back pain has been getting a whole lot better. I have been bumped from seeing the chiropractor from three times a week to twice a week. 






I still notice that standing too long and bending too much irritate it. I also don't think I'll ever get over the fact that just standing and folding clothes now gives me a backache in a couple of minutes.  I may need to play this to my advantage with Andre.  LOL.  ....but honey, my back hurts too much to do laundry!  LOL!!


Well over the past two weeks, we've had birthdays. Yes. We. Andre and I have birthdays that are 3 days apart, June 29 and mine July 2. Normally, we really don't do much of anything for our birthdays simply because there's always so much going on around this time. There was no exception this time. Lol.  Andre had to work the Saturday before his birthday and Sunday was our Youth Sunday program at church. That meant the kids were also practicing half the day Saturday.  (Look up Rocky Ford Baptist Church on youtube to see some of our dances and songs.  I haven't been posting a lot simply because it takes a long time to load up and I've been busy.)

 I did force him to take a picture through.  Happy 33 years!

And then came rolling around was my birthday.  Dirty 30.  This picture was taken on the last day in my 20s.  I decided to trade my sweatpants in for the day.  I always have to have pictures when I have on actual clothes as proof that I don't always look a mess and covered in finger paint or other unidentified kid fun.

Hey!  Dirty 30 pic!    You know how people get all antsy and depressed about turning 30 and where they should be in life?  Welp...ain't nobody got time for that!  I was like, "Hey 30.  How you doing?"  As I said earlier, we didn't do anything special for our birthdays.  Andre actually left to go to Kentucky the night before my birthday, but we swore we were going on a weekend trip or at least out to dinner.  To this day, we have done neither.  lol.  It'll happen one day.  There's just so much life going on.
I posted this pic to Facebook and Instagram along with this message (@mirame17  Yes I have discovered Instagram and obsessed with pictures):

The last 10 years - teen mom, caretaker of parents, went to college, defied the stereotype, nominated international honor society, had a second beautiful baby girl, spoiled her, worked odd jobs, hated odd jobs, thankful for odd jobs, created jobs, got hit by a tornado, had a miscarriage, quit college 4 months before graduation, sat out a year, finally married my husband - been together since '98, went back to school, pissed missed cum laude by some tenths of a point, decided I wasn't going to walk, decided I was crazy, graduated during the worse recession in 30 years, forced to be a stay at home mom, it was great except for being broke, taught preschool, met great people, love those people, start planning for baby number three, was already pregnant with baby number three, likely miscarried a twin, wanted to work, God had another plan, husband started a company, decided to stay home, met more wonderful people, I laughed, I cried, I prayed...a Lot, I grew, I changed, I tried, I failed, I made mistakes, I learned.  I lived.  I purposely focused on the not so good parts of life in this post.  Life happens.  It's up to you to decide how you're going to respond to it.  Goodbye 20s.  Hello 30s.  Can't wait to get to know you."
Trials and tribulations much?


 For the Fourth of July, my dad's side of the family was having a reunion and Andre's side of the family was having one.  This year we decided to go to Andre's side.  It was a lot of fun and very hot!! They had plenty of stuff set up for the kids...bouncy houses, water slides, kiddie pools and a bigger pool.  The kids had a blast.  We usually go to the park for the fireworks show but the road was blocked off early.  We decided to go get ice creams and met up with some of the family in the Kmart parking lot, along with a good crowd of folks, to watch the fireworks show from there.  Aj was so tired he fell asleep on the back of the truck.  They were all asleep by the time we got home.  
Cate, Gracie and Caleb You can see AJ covering his face in the back.  That child hates taking pictures.



This was the second day of the reunion and the majority of us somehow unknowingly agreed to wear our shirts today.  This is Andre and his cousin; however, they act more like brothers.  He is actually the one responsible for getting Andre and I together way back when.  They had the nerve to tell me I was photographing celebrities.....ummmm...yeah.  Okay. 



More pics from the reunion.  Cousins at the top.  The aunties at bottom left.  Me and cousin Kassandra bottom right.  If you want to laugh,  this is the one you hang with.  Love her! 
We had a great time getting together with the family.  There was a lot of love, laughter, sarcasm and food.  Some of my favorite things!  Can't wait to do it again!

Fathe's Day 2014

I hope everyone had a great father's day weekend!

Andre wasn't home at the start of Father's Day. He went to a softball tournament that Saturday and came back Sunday early afternoon. We would have went but I thought the kids had choir practice (they didn't).  So we waited anxiously for him to get home.

Originally, we had planned to go out and eat and head to the water park, but then decided to stay home instead.  I honestly wasn't sure about all the long hours bending, lifting, standing and running behind a toddler. 

So when he finally got home, the kids proceeded to swarm him with all of their Father's Day cards and pictures that they had made for him.  Then it was on to my favorite part of the day - pictures.  Of course, I forced  asked  told everyone to get together so I could take a picture for Father's Day.  Did I mention I'm a wanna be photographer? There is usually an excess of 1200-2000 pictures on my phone (500 at the moment- I just put in a new card 2weeks ago)This is part of the reason, it doesn't always work like it should. Then, Christmas came and I needed a real camera, a month later I needed a tripod, now I need a spare room....

It was about 90 degrees outside. So despite those smiles, they were like "hurrrry uuuup."

Thanks for making our days so bright daddy! (Hence the shades) Yeah, I think I'm all creative.  They're lucky I waited too last minute to get my softball MVP picture idea together.

"Come on AJ!  Take our picture!"  You know since moms take all the pictures of everyone, we are hardly ever in any of the pictures.  Sadly, no one else in the house shares my love for photography..... among all my other strange addictions.

Afterwards, the kids decided to help me fix daddy a meal.  I'm not sure if Caleb was prepping dinner or trying to be dinner. I think he associated the flour with some of our sensory play activities.

Then while I cooked, they all took off to go fishing. Of course, this didn't actually mean daddy would get to do any fishing. Lol. He was just supervising the kids.

 

(I guess if we are going to hand down toys and such from Cate to Caleb, we could at least spray paint them. Then again, it's not like he cares. lol)

So we ended our little Father's Day night watching the game or better yet yelling at the tv and eating. Cate and Caleb had built a fort in the living room and fell asleep on the floor.  I decided to let them stay there.  Overall, I think it was a pretty great day or at least the kids had fun.