Ayres Insanity

  It just occurred to me that I never wrote about Callae's first birthday, I mean really, what kind of mother forgets to blog about her only daughters first birthday? A frazzled one, that's who! Anyway, she turned one on August 10th and we did have a little party. It was a BBQ with family, girly balloons and a pink cake covered with pearls and topped with a sparkling singing candle (which might I add, was a big hit), and as most first birthdays, we enjoyed it more than she did.   I bought her her first baby doll, and she of course, got plenty of clothes and was spoiled by the grandparents.   She is now 13 months and started walking about 2 weeks ago, the time has flown and I can't believe my baby is becoming a toddler! I sure do love that beautiful little girl and can't picture my life without her.

  So for those who know what has been going on lately, it's no secret that we've been sporting one car lately.   About one very long month ago, Russ called in the morning and woke me up with the news of a broken down car (nice way to start the day eh?) so I packed up the kids and towed him to the repair shop. After fixing a broken radiator, the  piece of crap rice rocket 1998 Honda Civic hatchback revealed a hopelessly non repairable engine. Ummm seriously? I could swear that it was just barely over a year ago when the EXACT same thing happened to our Pathfinder. Who has this kind of luck???   Well, our mechanic quoted $2500.00 for the repair, (yeah right, we're still paying off last years $5000.00!) so after much prayer and contemplation, we decided that it simply wasn't going to happen. Russ decided to find a used motor on his own and with the help of his awesome brother, they would do the repair themselves. They spent several ...

  I have been abundantly blessed in my life, but tonight I'm a little bit sad. I'm sad for a friend who is experiencing trials, for the trials that have been going on in my life recently, and for the challenges we face daily, simply because of the world we live in.   Something that I've realized about trials is that we all have them, and there is always someone out there that probably has it worse. Having said that, I believe that just because an others trial might be worse, we should not count ours as trivial or insignificant.  Our trials are ours, ours to dread, to fight through, and to learn from... and although perspective is important in order to cope, it is of equal importance that we take the time to cry for ourselves, wonder why, and plead for  divine help. And then we move on, hopefully better than when we started.   So with one of my favorite quotes in mind; "I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it"....

  Yesterday was the first day of school and I think I was more excited than Taevin. I had organized all of his school supplies perfectly in his backpack, laid out his clothes, and made sure he was bathed and in bed early so he'd be well rested for his first day.   We woke up on time, got ready, had breakfast and were at the bus stop promptly at 7:20 for the 7:23 pickup. Then we waited... and waited... and waited, until finally one of our neighbors decided to take the kids to school. Well, as it turns out, the pickup time had changed to 7:04, but despite our bus mishap Taevin seemed to have had a good day, he got off of the bus smiling and was ready for some play time.   We finished summer with Ryler's itty bitty soccer (which was super cute) so I guess the next step is preschool for him then onto my mile long to-do list. YAY!

  A couple of days ago we were driving somewhere and the boys were in the back seat of the car arguing about something (not an uncommon thing with them), so I asked them what the problem was, Taevin said that Ryler was calling the flowers on the side of the road "sunshine flowers" and that he was wrong because they were really called sunflowers. I explained to Taevin that he was correct, however Ryler could call them whatever he wanted.   Yesterday, we stopped on the side of the road and picked a few sunshine flowers to take home.   School is starting tomorrow and although I won't miss the constant bickering, I'll miss the time in the sun my kids and I have spent together, and to preserve the memory, perhaps tomorrow I'll go out and get me a huge bouquet of sunshine flowers.

  Not too long ago I had posted about the unexplainable rage of our little Boston Terrier, Annie. She's friendly and sweet to everyone except other small dogs and this has been a huge source of stress for me for quite a while.   Well, it happened again, the kids left the door open and she bolted out and attacked another dog, this time it was one of her own kind, another Boston. Upon hearing the commotion, I ran outside, grabbed her and threw her about ten feet into the house. As she was sliding across the floor like a bowling ball, I was surveying the damage caused to the other dog, A little blood, but nothing serious. Still, I had reached my breaking point, that dog's luck had run out.   The next day, we found the owner of Annie's victim, who was sweet and explained that her dog was probably at fault too, however I still felt that Annie was too much of a liability for us at this point. She told us that her in-laws had spent their lives raising and breeding Boston...

  May I just say that Russ is superdad, and not only that, but the most amazing husband ever. Having said that, I suppose he deserved the fancy gift he received for fathers day.   On Saturday I told Russ that I needed to stop by the Verizon store to have my phone fixed, when we arrived Russ wanted to stay in the car with the kids while I went in so I went in and talked to them about my options for Russ new phone. I texted him to come in, which he grudgingly did with a sleeping Ryler in his arms and an irritated look on his face at my insistence that he join me, but his demeanor quickly changed as soon as I told him to go pick out his new phone. He was thrilled as we headed home with his new iPhone.   Sunday was pleasant and easy going, we had my dad over for dinner and enjoyed a quiet evening.   I've expressed many times my feelings toward my husband, but I'd now like to share my feelings about my own father. My dad is one of the kindest and mo...