Tuskahoma Oklahoma

I took the time to upload more photos than I normally do because I just couldn't choose which ones I like best ..

We went to Tuskahoma Oklahoma on Friday night. Tuskahoma is the Capitol of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Apparently Choctaw put on an amazing festival every year. This is the first year that we have known about it. It was a drive to get there but for 10 bucks a tent you can turn up on Friday and stay until Monday. Its a lot like the Magnolia festival we here with a couple of big differences. First of all no on camps at the Magnolia festival and second a night at the Magnolia festival always cost us an arm and a leg.

The festival at Tuskahoma is pretty close to absolutely FREE!! yes a said free. You have to pay for camping ($10.00) and your food (which you can bring your own, buy it there or go about 5 minutes down the road which is really cheap) and if you want to play carnival games ( where you win stuffed animals ) that cost, But the rides are free and the concerts are free.

I have no problem saying no to carnival games, I always have felt that they are a rip off but the rides, well its impossible to take a child to a carnival and say no to the rides.

This week end they had Billy Currington, Wynonna Judd, Gretchen Wilson and a few others. Just for the record this is my 2nd time to see Gretchen Wilson at a Choctaw event and it confirms to me that I just cant support her music, I love some of her songs but She has lost my respect. Choctaw is very anti-alcohol. Their reasoning may be debatable (they feel that Indians are very susceptible to become alcoholics but they support gambling which also can be an addition) but rather or not Choctaw have a debatable reason they are the one's who hired her and she should follow their request.

The first time I saw her was at the Casino and my daughters and I met Gretchen Wilson back stage, she was three sheets to the wind and left her dressing room trashed with beer cans. This time she pulled out the whiskey on stage and her and her band members drank it in front of the crowd. I am not against drinking and had a glass of wine tonight but she was told she couldn't drink but openly did any way. Needless to say I have lost respect for this woman and won't purchase her CDs any more.

Other than just not respecting one of the singers and taking cold showers we had an amazing time this week end. I however will not complain one bit about sleeping in my own bed tonight! lol

Yesterday we had a stroll through the arts and crafts building and then Stephen wanted to find a place to go swimming. We got directions but we ended up some where other than the swimming area. We really have no complaints about getting lost. The whole area is so beautiful we enjoyed just driving around for a while. It rained for just a few minutes and then we took a few photos.

First there are a couple a photos taken from the window of the van as we drove 50 mph across a bridge.





Then here are a few that we took just after the rain stopped.











I was driving back and I saw this amazing view through some trees, so I stopped, backed up and went back to get a few photos..




Then finally there are a few of this man in the arts and crafts area that was using this odd tool to whack on a rock that eventually becomes an arrow head. I found it interesting and I also found the man interesting.

Alexis Rae

ok for those that don't know my life story, I got married right out of high school to a man that was almost 10 years older than me. Yeah dumb teenager!.. My now X had two children a 4 year old boy (Steven) and a 2 year old girl (Summer). The very weekend that I was moving in the kids where coming for a week end visit. That visit lasted until the kids where 15 and 17! One longggggg weekend. My X drove over the road for several years and then worked nights when he stopped driving over the road. I always worked a full time job and managed what eventually was 4 children. I may as well have been a single mother of 4 for many years.

Even though I didn't give birth to Steven and Summer they are my kids and always will be. Today they are grown and have children of their own.

Yesterday Summer gave birth to her second child. Talon Joe was her first baby almost 2 years ago, yesterday she brought Alexis Rae into the world at 6lbs 15oz.

Steven has a daughter, Cloey Lane and is about to have another daughter in the next couple of weeks. Cloey is 3 years old so for the last 3 years there has been a battle of wills over what they should call me and now my husband too. I am way to young to be a ganny, nanna or grandma, pluss they have their birth mother to name as well. Steven and Summer's birth mother told me yesterday at the hosptial that if she is being called granny then I better anny up and get a "grandmotherly" name! lol.. I just feel like I am not old enough and not ready for that kind of name.. I have to sort out something quick because the kids have started telling them to call me "mimi" or something .. I am only 34 I should not be worried about "granny" names yet!!!

However the granny name does not change the fact that I have the most beautiful grandchildren in the world!!! So welcome to the world Alexis Rae and I promise to get a name sorted that suits us all before Alexis can talk!

The photos above are my son Steven, his wife Carissa and Cloey, then Talon Joe holding his sister Alexis, next is Summer holding Alexis and the rest are Alexis as it was her birthday!

We had a strange visitor in our flower bed today

This morning I decided that it was past time to weed the flower beds. The last time I did this was for the 4th of July!! Yea umm we had as much grass as flowers. Shelby was gone to a friend's house, Katie was in her play pen with Stephen and I and Sara was making random appearances at the door. I think she just wanted to remind us that she was here and totally bored with the whole gardening thing..

At one point Sara ask what was this huge bee thing, I assumed it was a honey bee (because we have several hives in the back yard). I didn't think much of it after that But then after several hours in the sun we had a much needed water break and I sat on the front steps. I saw yellow and black and again though it was a bee.

Stephen pointed out this "bee" to me and we both realized this was no honey bee. I was so amazed just watching this thing buzz around.

It just happened that the cat had been attacking me (in a playful way) earlier and I had taken a photo of her, so my camera was just inside the door. Lucky for me that the camera was there because I impressed myself with a couple of the photos that I managed to get.

I did a little research and found that we had a Snowberry Clearwing Hummingbird Moth in our garden! Apparently these are moths that look a lot like a bumble bee but hovers and flies a lot like a humming bird.

any way I was amazed by the moth and impressed with the photos that I managed to snap.

sometimes a new look is just hard to find

So Shelby is the one person in our house that is bold enough to go REALLYYY short with her hair. I some times think about it but well my ears are way to big!!

Shelby's hair is better short, its extremely straight and healthy but if it ever grows past her shoulders it starts to get thin and ratty. There is nothing like spending an hour after every bath trying to untangle that mess while she cry's because it hurts.

Shelby finally talked me into letting her go reallly short a year and a half ago. It took her a good year of asking before I gave in. She went short and spiky in the back and left the front fairly long. Its a hard look to pull off but for Shelby it just fit her.

We really should buy stock in the Got 2 B hair products. The first thing we used was the Got 2 B Glued, from there I think we have tried all their products. The Glued is the best spiker ever and I like some of the hair sprays and gels to.

Honestly since she got that hair cut, I have never taken her any where that people don't stare and people always comment that they love her hair. She always gets "cool hair", "I love your hair" and "mommy I want hair like hers!!".

The first photo is one of my favorites of Shelby, yes there is something drawn on her face, it was left over halloween make up and we where playing around with it. Several people have said she looks like Twiggy in this photo.

When it starts growing out its a bit difficult to do anything with and starts looking a mess. But after the same hair cut for a year and a half she wants something different. Its a bit hard to go different from SHORT!! She found a photo of some girl with her hair cut except the bangs where cut short also. We did it tonight, I think Stephen isn't happy with it but Shelby is and well its hair and will grow back. I suppose we will still be supporting the Got 2 B collection because its the only hair product that holds Shelby's hair. With out the Got 2 B Glued her hair would never stand up. My mother would have never let me do any thing like this with my hair and I always said that with the exception of coloring it black they can do any thing they want. I wont let them color it black because its difficult and extremely damaging to reverse. My kids have had all lengths and pretty much all colors of hair. This summer it was purple streaks. Its been pink streaks and blue streaks, what ever its all temporaryy and hopefully a phase they will grow out of by the time they are ready to get jobs!

As for Shelby's new look, I think I like it and really wish I had the face for it, simple and easy and hassle free!!

where does the week end go?

So Stephen and I went fishing Friday night. We staid until late then went decieded we needed some fishing gear. We made a run to Wal-Mart and got new poles and a few gadgets. Saturday morning we where up early and back at the river.

It was so strange being at the river when the water so really low. The fish where every where, and jumping up into the air like crazy. There where several people out fishing at 6 AM but no one was catching anything. This young guy offered us his left over bait and one fairly large catfish. He had been there over 12 hours and caught one fish!

I actually saw several large fish surface for a second, then duck down and come back up to do a big flop but none of them seemed bothered to even nibble at our lines. I finally gave up and took a wonder down the river bed.

There are some amazing birds that tend to fly low and right over head. Of course when I remembered to bring my camera none of the birds flew close enough to get really good shots. I only took one lens and really was wishing that Stephen had brought his camera and his big lens. I have put a slide show on the side of my page with the photos that I took (oh and one photo of a fish that Stephen caught Friday night).

Spent the rest of Saturday with my niece, her husband and their 4 year old son (Keith). It was Keith's birthday. The boy is really into the Transformers at the moment. It was fun to see him get so excited over his presents. I am glad they are back in Oklahoma for the moment but honestly I am not sure she will last long. The thing about my niece is she has been in California for several years and she is very independent. I really don't think she will be happy back here where family is so close. Not that she and I don't love our family but neither of us are the clingy type and most of our family is clingy or at least in your face types of people. I don't think it will be long until she ventures at least to OKC or Dallas.

We spent this morning working in the yard. Stephen finally figured out what the huge flowers are that we have for the fist time this year. Hollyhocks. Those things are huge (7 to 9 feet tall) and beautiful while they are blooming but once they bloom they look really shabby. I wanted to find out if we could trim them of if they where the type of flowers you let bloom then cut down until next year. Turns out we can trim them so Today I did just that. I still have yard work to do but it just got way to hot. We escaped the heat by coming indoors and spent the rest of the day moving Katie in with Shelby.

I am not sure that I will sleep tonight because this will be the first night for Katie to sleep outside of our bed room. She is 14 months old and I am just not sure if she (well maybe it should be I) am ready for her to move out!

I am exhausted though so we will just see what happens.

tooooo tired and sunburned to move

So we had our 4 day week end and its almost over.. Saturday we photographed that wedding and honestly with the drive and long day what else could we have possibly added to the day....well nothing else really..
Sunday we did a couple of quick things around the house, then spent the rest of the day at the lake with the kids.
Monday we spend the day doing some shopping that REALLLLLYYYY did not need to be done, for example we spent way to much money in Lowes..more on that later.... we also had lunch at a new place that we found in Durant. It is called 2nd Street Bakery. Stephen and I both had the chicken salad which reminded me a lot of this chicken salad that we had at a wedding and I worked out what all was in it so that I could make it for some other event. Lets see if I can remember....
boiled chicken breast ( chopped into small pieces) or if your like me and in a hurry a couple of cans of chicken.
walnuts
grapes ( cut in half)
celery
a package of the Hidden Valley Ranch dressing (mixed as directed on the package)
chopped onions
hmm that is every thing, or at least what I can think of..any way it sounds odd with nuts and grapes and ranch dressing but its really really goood
The bakery had a selection of breads, we tried the pepper jack bread and it was really good! so we brought a loaf home.. I am now wondering where it is and what sort of excuse I can find for having some now.
Any way after our splurging we headed home for some WORK on our day off... We spend the rest of the day unloading the stuff that we bought, Stephen and Shelby ran to pick up some free supplies for the project we where about to do and then the hard part started.
I had less than great AC in the van the year before last (when I was pregnant with Katie) the AC would blow nice and cool for a few minutes, then the darn thing would switch to heater and no matter what you did the heater would not go off, so most of the time I just left it off so that I didn't have to deal with he heater.
Then last summer we where driving along with the AC on because Katie was a small baby and I was scared she would over heat. All of the sudden we smelled smoke and then the AC went off for good. We could feel air trying to come out of it but the blower wasn't working.

This ment that most of the summer and all of the winter I had no AC or heat. We didn't bother to fix the van because we just used Stephen's car really. I was the only one that was really having to deal with it. After having a look on line at some auto parts stores I just couldn't bring myself to go get the stuff to fix it, the price was about $300.oo for the whole blower unit.
For some odd reason we went to Auto Zone on Monday and Stephen was checking out when I suggested we just find out what the motor only cost and at least get that for now. I have been reluctant to take Katie any where in the van because it has been so hot. My idea at the time was that if Auto Zone wanted to much we would stop by the salvage yard and check their prices. Turns out the motor alone is only 5o bucks so we got it.
Once Stephen and Shelby got home we worked on building up a flower bed/goldfish pond and still to come a walk way.. Then we started on the van, the motor was easily seen but extremely hard to remove. By the end of the night we had the entire dash off the van. What we discovered was that the wires coming off the blower motor plugged into this blower regulator that had shorted out. The whole thing looked like it had been on fire at one point.
I had also been having weird problems with the speedometor, which we realized was all due to this shorted out part.

Then my daughter-n-law calls and wants me to walk her through re-installing windows on her computer so instead we went to Auto Zone, then to get the computer so I could bring it home and re-install windows.
Auto Zone really turned us into O'Reilly's customers. Stephen walks in at 6 minutes until closing and the guy never looked at the part just told him to go to the dealer cause he don't have the part. We went to O'Reilly at 2 minutes until closing and they said they could order the part and have it in 2 days.
I was up until about 2 am working on the computer and then taking my daughter-n-law home. So 8am came to quickly for me but we had to try and find this part. So we went to O'Reilly in Sherman and found the part for fairly cheap.. After a quick stop at the salvage yard to get the connetors (apparently no auto parts store carries the connectors called pig tales) we finally headed home to sort out the AC in the van.
It took a long time to get the part on and put the entire dash back together. However it was well worth the time because now my AC and speedomitor works!
While Stephen was doing that I was mowing and working in the yard. Darn its amazing how much better our yard looks with the grass cut and the flowers trimmed. We have been so busy that the flower beds have been left to grow way out of the acutal beds. I attempted to mow and weed eat in the back yard but that's gonna have to be Stephen's deal, his darn bees came straight for me when I turned the corner with the lawn mower going!!
Finally we finished our so called time off with a project that was all Stephen's idea and soooooo worth all the work!!!!

All I could say was WOW

Stephen and I finally took two days off work so we have a 4 day week end, its such a rare thing for us to just have a few days off with nothing pressing to do. So Saturday we traveled about 2 hours from home to attend and photograph the wedding of a friend in my unit (Nancy). I choose to offer to turn up early and assist in any way I could, I made this offer because Stephen and I had a small informal wedding and still found ourselves struggling to get it all together on the day of the wedding.

Nancy is the type of person who gets along ok with every one and rarely has an issue with other soldiers, but I wouldn't say she socializes much with the unit. During annual training this year we actually got to stay in a motel and had evenings free. I never saw her hanging out at the pool or anything like that. But if you take the time to talk to her and get to know her she is an interesting person with an interesting life story. In many ways its a real shame that many people in our unit don't know her personally, they only know her by the work she does in her job to support the unit.

I would have to admit that Nancy and her new husband Jim had what was the most "red-neck wedding" that I have ever attened. However as informal and "red-neck" as it was the people attending where happy people, and there was no real wedding day drama. We turned up (after getting lost) in the back woods of Coalgate Oklahoma, at a cabin sitting on about 100 acers of deer woods ( you know where men gather to hunt deer and drink beer) . Stephen was instantly ready to sell every thing we own and move into a cabin in the woods! This was a man's place and only brave hearted women dared to enter at the risk of a cold shower and no real sign of true air conditioning (AC). Now they had a small AC in the cabin, however when your cooking food for 85 people in a small cabin the stove overpowered the AC and the only chance of cooling down came from a cold beer that could be found in any of the many ice chest on the premises. Nancy, being the bride also had the fortune of a small travel trailer with amazing AC for her and her bridal party to pretty them selves up in.

When I say this was an informal, red-neck wedding, I am talking about beer mugs instead of champain flutes, and Bud Light Lime instead of chamain, cow paddies in the isle, deer horns mounted every where, a preacher dressed in camo from head to toe and a big "yeee hawww" as the bride walks down the isle. Now I was told before hand to turn up dressed casual, some of the bridal party were gonna be in capris, Ok I had on black dress capris and a nice top, OMG I should have taken her at her word and done as most of the other guest and turned up in short and a tank top, I was smoldering and my clothes sticking to me! Honestly I think that for what some would for sure call a very "red-neck" event, this was a fun and interesting event, where every one had a good time and no one felt out of place.

I am only adding 3 photos of the wedding, I just want to give you a general idea of the how things where, later when we have downloaded and edited all of them maybe I will add a few more.

We pretty much spent yesterday relaxing at the lake and spending time with the girls and my oldest daughter and grandson. The most eventful moment of the day was when Talan ( the grandson) had to get a hair cut. I swear one day he will refuse to come see me because every time I see him I cut his hair and he HATES it.

This morning we slept until about 8 AM and sad as it is we felt we had slept in. So as we slowly moved around and started our day Stephen wonders out side in his shorts and shoes only to have a look at his bee hives. It only took him a few minutes to come running in saying that the bees where swarming!! Now Sara and Shelby have gone to their sister's to spend the night so lucky for me Katie had just fallen off to sleep for her morning nap. So I was able to grab my camera and go see what was up with the bees. I am sure Stephen will post a blog about the details of the swarm and what happened before I got out there. I can only tell you what was going on when I got outside.

I was concerned that one of our hives was trying to swarm off. As it turns out our bees where minding their own buisness and doing their own thing, none of them where trying to fly away. Apparently its fairly common for swarms of bees to be attracted to places where bee hives are kept. Now I am not a bee master of any sort, but I have picked up a few bits of information along the way.

When I came around the house to where Stephen keeps his hives, I didn't see a swarm of bees and was wondering what all the fuss was about. Stephen was working quickly as possible to ready a hive for this new swarm and I must have looked puzzled because he pointed out the bees to me.

I have always been diligent in planting flowers every spring, and often I plant bulbs that will come back year after year. Every since Stephen's first visit here he has helped me with this task. Now days (every since he started with the bees) Stephen is even more into the flower beds and plants that I ever thought about being. Almost all plants we have are pre-annual plant that specifically attract bees. Needless to say we have a lot of flowers planted all over the yard.

This swarm of bees had landed for the most part on two large flowers. I am not even sure what these flowers are, they resemble a sun flower but they do not produce sunflower seeds. There where so many bees on these two flowers that the flowers where pulled down almost touching the ground.

Stephen prepared a hive for the bees and then broke off the two flowers and dumped the bees inside the box. Again I am not a bee master but I do know that once a swarm finds a new home there are certain bees that began to "fan", basically they rapidly flap their wings and emit a scent that says "this is our new home, come move in"! Almost instantly upon being dumped into the new hive there where bees fanning on top of the hive. Stephen didn't even have the lid on yet and they where fanning.

Stephen and I stood and watched as the rest of the bees migrated from the grass around the flowers into the box. It was like they formed a line and slowly moved into the box. I was amazed at how nature works and how these bees just followed the leader and moved into this have while several bees stood at the entrance and fanned the rest of the swarm into their new home.

Stephen is currently out there looking to find and mark the queen and trying to insure that the bees do not try to swarm off some where else. I really am hoping that this swarm takes up perminate residence in their new hive. I was so impressed by the bee's natural instinct and the way the work, I just want them to stick around.
here is a couple of photos, I will post more later

To much going on I haven't managed to post anything

It seems like I haven't had a spare minute in a really long time. I had the two weeks of military training , came home and worked a week at my regular job and then had drills this week end. Every evening has been one chore after another. So I haven't had time to post a blog or take a breath or any thing.

I was pretty happy with myself last week when I put myself on the calendar to have this coming Monday off, and I had Stephen take that day off too. We were gonna have a three day weekend, leave here Friday after work and come home Monday about lunch. The plan was to go camping and just chill out. Then I went to drills this weekend and realized I had promised one of the girls in my unit that I would turn up to her wedding this Saturday. I had promised to be there early and help set up and just do any thing she needed done. I made this promise because Stephen and I found our self struggling to get things set up on our wedding day. I honestly left home only half dressed for the wedding and at the time the wedding should have started Stephen was just getting into the shower. There was a couple and their daughter who stepped in and helped out, if it had not been for them none of the tables would have been decorated or anything. So I gladly offered to be there to help with all these details for this girl. I am not complaining, and have no regrets about he offer.

However I could kick myself for not asking for Monday and Tuesday off! I have never ever taken a vacation. I need some down time at the moment but I am struggling to find time to just rest really.

A couple of years ago we took the girls camping for the week end. Not a vacation really because it was only the week end, but it was at least two days of down time. The girls loved the place and was ready to pack up and move to the area we camped in. Now I am saying lets go camping for a couple of days of down time and Sara has done a 360 on me and wants to stay home. This is because of her new boyfriend. Geeeessshhhh darn teenagers!! I need a break boyfriend or not so Sara is gonna have to suck it up and do what Stephen and I want for a couple of days.

I wanted to post some more of the photos that I took at camp and a couple that I took today with Stephen.

After work today Stephen wanted to go look at some bees that some one had called him about. The man didn't want the bees in his tree but he was reluctant to kill them because he had heard about bees disappearing.

We lucked out, because the man had built a bird house and hung it in a tree, the bees had taken over the bird box. It was a simple extraction, tape up the opening and remove the box, bees and all. It was simple and quick.

I expected to come home and have some mad bees, and they did buzz around a little bit but honestly not a lot. In fact Stephen put on his hood but I stood around with my camera in a tank top, shorts and flip flops and they bees didn't seem bothered that I was there, camera in their face snapping away.

After the bees where settled into their new home I was frustrated because I wanted close up, sharp images but I didn't manage to get any.

i




It's annual training time so I have been away for most of this week. I was allowed to come home for the night because I have an important appointment tomorrow morning.

I took my camera along with me. I normally try to remember to bring a small digital camera, however I gave Sara my small digital camera after some girl at school purposely destroyed Sara's camera ( another story of another day). So this time I took my real camera. I wanted to take a lot of photos over the two weeks, but that hasn't seemed to happen. Partly I was so busy trying to qualify with my M-16.

We drove something like 6 hours to get to this place to qualify with our weapons. The day we arrive we hear lots of rumors that things are not going well at the rang, but range control had done some work so maybe it would be ok when we qualified.

I went to he zero range and was spot on with my zero. I was happy and thinking that maybe the range was gonna be ok. Turns out that the pop up range wasn't working so well. I went out on the first try and noticed that some of my targets where not even popping up, so when those didn't pop up I fired at my neighbors targets. Why not help him out if I wasn't getting to fire at my own targets. Didn't really do either of us any good. I know I missed a couple of targets but not as many as the range machine showed.

So I went on the second try and I counted that I had hit about 28 or 29 targets but hey said I only hit 14!!!! No Way! I have never not qualified so I went for a 3rd and final try. There was a lot of people who had not qualified and where having the same complaints as me. This time they sent some one with each shooter to count our hits. The guy who went with me said he was positive that I hit 27 targets, possibly more. He counted 23 that fell, 3 or 4 that I hit but the target shook but never fell, and 3 that he thought I hit but he was not sure. So I for sure hit at least 27 targets, the range machine said I hit 22, ONE SHORT OF QUALIFICATION!

We didn't have time for another try but I am not in this boat alone there are a lot of people who did not qualify, some of the senior people who have never in 20 or more years not qualified left the range with lower scores than mine. I am not sure what the unit will do, if they can use the scores that our spotters counted or if there is a possible make up fire at some other range.

Every since we got back to the unit its been one thing after another and I keep thinking that I am not taking any photos but I haven't had time or opportunity.

I posted a few above just because I like them really. There is my Zero target, I actually had 2 spots on there where I hit the same hole twice.

There is a photo of a bird, this bird was in the motor pool where we park our vehicles. I was walking up to where my unit was gathering up for formation and this bird's feather's are standing on end, the bird is dancing and squawking and charging at me. My fried Misty said she thought it was trying to have a mating dance with me. Turns out the bird has an egg in my path way and she isn't happy that I am come so close. I grabbed the camera and took a couple photos, but by then she was less mad and her feathers where not standing on end as much, in this photo its just her tail that is fanned out. She was a pretty bird to bad she wasn't very friendly.

There is also a photo of a couple of people cleaning up one of the Hummers. They lifted the end of the Hummer with one of the trucks so that they could power wash the underneath.

Hopefully I will get a few more photos in the next week. On Monday Stephen and Katie (Sara and Shelby if they are home) are coming to the unit for a family day/ open house where we should get a few good photos. Can't wait really because Stephen has had very little interaction with my unit. I think the more the family is involved the better so I love these events where the family get to come and be part of it all.

When is the right time?

So Katie turned 1 in April. According to my oldest daughter (who's son turned 1 in October) babies should not have a bottle after their first birthday. Apparently the correct thing to do is throw out all their bottles at their birthday party and be done with it. Well it worked for her but I don't remember bottle breaking being that easy.

I helped a LOT with my adopted brother and sister, I was 12 when my parents adopted my little sister and I don't know 14 or so when they adopted my brother. I took care of them so much that people thought that they where mine. If I recall correctly breaking them off of the bottle was pure hell really. They cried for hours before they fell asleep.

Steven and Summer where 2 and 4 when I married their dad and even though they lived with me until they where 15 and 17 I was lucky and didnt have to bottle break or potty train either one of them.

Sara was pretty easy to bottle break well sort of. I went to military boot camp on her first birthday and my mother helped take care of her for my X. She was bottle broke when I got back and only had a bottle because I felt like I missed so much and encouraged her to take her bottle so that I could break her from it. Dumb I know but well I was young and wanted to be mommy, I was upset that my mother had done such a huge thing and I had not been a part of it.

Shelby was the hardest of my children. I wanted her to still be in her crib in my bed room. Her dad insisted that Shelby and her crib move into her sister's room. I reluctantly moved her but this in its self was a mistake. Summer had the choice she could have the smaller bed room to herself or take the bigger bedroom and choose either Sara or Shelby to share with. She chose to share with Shelby. Another mistake, Summer chose Shelby because Summer hates to sleep alone. So every night I would give Shelby a bottle, turn on Barney and leave the room. Shelby would lay down and go to bed. I had no idea that Summer was taking her out of the crib and putting Shelby in bed with her.

When bottle breaking time came Shelby first would stand up in her bed and yell "sissy come get me" when that wouldn't work (I was being strict and making Summer let Shelby start falling asleep alone) Shelby would cry and cry and cry. It was terrible, I honestly don't know how I ever got through it.

I really didn't let Katie lay down with a bottle until she was able to hold it on her own. For some reason until Katie I had no problem with people propping babies bottles, I know my brother and sister and Sara and Shelby had their bottles propped at daycare all the time. I worked at the day care where Shelby went and I know all the babies got their bottles propped at one point or another. I never really propped bottles in the baby bed though I was always worried that they would choke.

I read some where that propping bottles causes ear infections and cavities. So Katie never had her bottle propped and never had a bottle in bed with her until she could hold it herself. Maybe its just that I am not an 18 year old mother this time, but I was very against the whole propping bottles idea.

Now at 1 Katie seems quite happy to drink from a cup and would really rather have a cup than a bottle. I only really give her one when she is sleepy. I honestly think we could break her from the bottle easily except at bed time. I am so dreading it and recently read some one's blog where mom said she got 3 hours of sleep on day one of weaning I don't know if I can handle that at the moment. Things are crazy enough here with Stephen's job changing his hours every day and me leaving for annual training I don't see either of us managing on 3 hours of sleep.

The other thing I am stressing over is the baby crib. Summer and my daughter-n-law are both pregnant and still has a few months to go. I bought Summer a used but very nice baby bed when her son (Talan) was a baby. Summer still has that bed and plans to use it for her next baby. My daughter-n-law is having her first baby and needs a bed. I was thinking that by the time she has the baby Katie would be in a toddler bed but its only 4 or 5 months away and I am in no way ready to move Katie out of her crib or out of our room.

Katie don't sleep through the night as it is. If I moved her into the bedroom with Shelby now she would wake Shelby up during the night, so I am waiting until school is out so that Shelby can sleep in if Katie does wake her. If I put Katie into a toddler bed, holy cow the house would be destroid every moring. I could see every toy pulled out of the toy boxes and DVDs every where. I just can't bring my self to do it.

When is the right time to break them from the bottle and put them in a toddler bed? Geeeesshhh Shelby is 10 I don't remember when to do all this stuff.

My Review!

This is gonna short cause I am sleepy and have a long day ahead of me tommorow.



So it's drill weekend again and I am once again gone for two nights. The unit pays for the room and lunch, with the room comes coupons for a discount on food at the Denny's that is attached to the motel. I like Denny's but who wants to eat there all weekend.



Last night my room mate was laughing at her sister for trying to convince their parents into taking her to a Mexican restaurant that she wanted to go to. Ever since then I just wanted some Mexican food, but I wanted to go to one of those places that bring you chips and salsa when you sit down.



So tonight we do an Internet search for Mexican place to eat. My room mate is 110% against Tex-Mex she only wants original Mexican food cooked by true Mexicans, a Mom and Pop Mexican place, that's what she wants. I only spot one place on the net that looked like it may be what she is looking for. So we take off for this restaurant but find it to be closed!



Determined that I want Mexican food and she wants Mom and Pop we start driving. We are just driving around and all of the sudden she is doing a u-turn and saying there it is!!! She had spotted a place that she thought could be the place some one had told her about.



So we pull into Coronatdo's , as it turned out that wasn't the exact place she thought it was but it turned out all good any way. We open the door to go in and realize that the place was closed. The woman insist that its ok and we should come in and eat any way. The actually unstacked two chairs and pulled out a table for us! Now that is Mom and Pop service for you, no fancy restraunt would do that.



The woman brought us a hand written menu, all in spanish and we proceeded to try and sort out what we wanted that they had. My friend ask for Barbacoa and the woman gets excited we have a language breakthrough!! lol



I have no idea what Barbacoa is so I ask my friend and she says its beef, just beef! However I am a little worried because the way she is telling me its beef I am thinking its not hamburger or steak. I waivered but ended up saying ok give me a bean burrito with cheese sauce and I will be ok and feel safe in my choice.



In the mean time another family comes in and are welcomed to come in and eat. I love that the people are so welcoming when just 5 minutes ago they where about to end their long day's work and head home to their own lives.



We had a Mexican Coke (apparently different from American Coke) and our food was ready very quickly. Our food is on the table and I realize that my friend has basically ordered Tacos made out of soft corn tortias, chopped beef and onions. I was like um why the odd name for tacos? But before I can ask she pops one of the tacos on my plate. I ate the whole thing before I ever touched my burito. It was good and I thought nothing of.



We finish up and get ready to leave. OMG we only have ATM cards with us and the darn sign behind the registar (which by the way is the only English in the place and we missed it!) says CASH ONLY! So my friend takes of for the ATM while I stand there looking sort of dumb and trying to explain that my friend went to get cash.



The woman's son turns up with his two young children to run the cash registar and help close up for the night. He speaks more English and insist that we don't worry about the bill cause he knows that no one carries cash and its a real pain to not be able to use your card.



Apparently they have only been open about 2 weeks and have not been able to get a card reader because they need a phone/fax machine and are actually having trouble getting the phone company to come and install it. Now I may be way off as we had a language barrier but I swear she said that the phone company wont turn on the phone because they tried to pay for it in Mexican money and the phone company wouldn't take it! again I may have miss understood. But I still found it funny.



My friend whips in with the cash and we pay and leave. I am going on and on about how much I love the whole Mom and Pop atmosphere when my friend ask if I like the Barbacao. I loved it and thought it was great and on and on.. then she informs me that Barbacoa is "a certain barbeque technique using the head of the beef cattle. " OMG she fed me COW FACE!!!!

Still it was good food and most importantly the customer service was great and I think that we will go there on drill weekend.