Moving On.

So, yeah. Remember this post , from back in July?

Taken in 2005.

John is on the left, I'm on the right.

My mother-in-law is in the middle.

Enough.Said.

Also, are you familiar with the literary term "foreshadowing"?

fore·shad·ow

 [fawr-shad-oh, fohr-]

verb (used with object)

to show or indicate beforehand; prefigure.

Maybe I should have bolted way back then, in 2005, when my mother-in-law first plopped her bony ass between us.

I had no idea that it would stay there for next six years.

She has been the source of a great deal of stress and disagreements in our marriage. It got much worse after she and her ex-husband divorced; she has no social life now and decided to make our business, her business.

I don't fault her completely; her son should have put a stop to it long ago. But he didn't, and the stress built up. It ate away at our happiness. It ate away at our marriage. The stress John was under, trying to run interference between his mother and his wife....it changed him. He is no longer the funny, carefree, happy guy I married. It affected his relationship with me, and with my children.

Between that and the way both he and his mother are choosing to raise Andrew, and the way they are handling the court situation with Andrew's biological mother....I've had as much as I can take.

I'm not saying everything is all her fault. There are other problems as well. I believe that people come into our lives for a season, a reason, or a lifetime. I believe this particular season of my life is drawing to a close.

I'm not happy, and more importantly, my children are not happy.

And now, Mother In Law Dearest has won. Because I'm done. She can have all the control she wants. And everything else that comes with it.

We are not promised tomorrow. Life is too short to live this way.

I'm moving on.

Birthdays in my City

Today we had Andrew's birthday party at a Splash Park near our home.

(Yes, it's still warm enough for a splash park party here. Plenty warm enough!)

It was overcast, and started pouring after about an hour and a half.

But it was fun while it lasted!

*And a good time was had by all!*

Sunday in my City

Happy

Birthday

Andrew!

Andrew turned 12 last Tuesday.

I had fun putting 12 candles on a cupcake.

Lighting them was....interesting, as well. ;-)

Visit Unknown Mami for more Sundays in my City posts!

DysFUNctional MOMents - Emo Cheerleaders?

I so suck at life. Late to my own meme! Oh well, better late than never!



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Elayna is my 10 year old daughter. She has many different interests. She has played several sports, and loves to sing and dance. These interests are subject to change at any time. So when she wanted to sign up for cheerleading for our rec center this year, I kind of shrugged it off and let the deadline slide by.

Money is tight, and I really wasn't sure if she was serious about cheerleading. This is my "emo" kid; highly dramatic and in fact, she looked at her smiling stuffed frog just yesterday and grumbled, "Why do you have to be so HAPPY all the time??"
She's quite the little ray of sunshine. just like her mama

So yeah, not exactly what you might imagine as the perfect candidate for cheerleading.

But the other day, I took the kids to the rec center to play, and the cheerleading squad was practicing. The very one she wanted to join. Two of her friends are on the team, and she talked with them and then hung out, watching practice. She copied their moves, and had a good time. When practice was over, the coaches & some of the parents stayed, discussing some cheer business. Elayna kept doing the cheer she had learned, and at one point, I saw one of the coaches watching her. Then she said something to the other coach, who then turned and watched her. I said, "Elayna. let's get outta here, I think they think you're stealing their cheers."

So, we went home and thought nothing else of it. Until I got an email from the mom of one of the friends on the squad. She's also the Team Mom and a friend of mine. And the email said, quote:

"Hey Cyndy! Just wanted to let you know that K's cheer coach saw Elayna doing the girls' cheer (after the girls left and we were having our meeting) and she said Elayna was really good and was amazed she caught on so quickly to what they were doing. She was quite impressed. :) She needs to get in cheer next year! ;)"

Sigh. Yet another Mom Fail.

And yes, I read the email to Elayna, who beamed with pride. She literally turned red. My little Emo Cheerleader.

PS- Today is Andrew's 12th Birthday! I'm sure that will make for some DysFUNctional MOMents as well. ;-)

Link up already!!

DysFUNctional MOMents II - One Child Left Behind

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It's Tuesday and time to confess this week's #momfail moments!
And of course, I have one ready and waiting.

Sunday was a busy day for us. At least, that's the defense I'm using. The girls went to a church picnic with my sister, niece, & niece's husband. Tim was at a friend's house, & Andrew was at MIL's house. John & I had errands to run, and that's also the day we adopted our new kitty.

Once we got the cat, we took her straight home, arriving just after my sister & her family brought the girls home. Tim was home also, along with two of his friends. We came inside and showed the cat to everyone, and chatted with my sister & family, Tim, and his friends. We were laughing and having a good ol' time.

And then the phone rang. It was John's mom. The infamous MIL.

What could she possibly want?

Oh, she was wondering where we were. Because it was 6:35pm. And we were supposed to meet her at 6pm to pick up Andrew.

We totally forgot about our kid.

Um....oops?

Now it's your turn! Link up a DysFUNctional MOMent, so I don't feel like such a douche.

Please link directly to your DysFUNctional MOMents post,

and leave a comment after linking up!

Fraggin' from the End of my Rope

~ It's been a rough week, emotionally draining, and today was the worst! I'm at the end of my rope, for sure.

~ Among other stresses, today John went to the end of our dirt road, as usual, to pick up the Littles off of the bus. Andrew got off...but not Elayna. It took us 30 minutes to figure out where my child was! She missed the first-run bus, so the school dean put her on a second-run bus. She didn't tell anyone, so nobody knew where she was. The secretary finally learned, via the bus driver, what had happened and that she had been dropped off, so we had to rush back to the bus stop. Meanwhile she had already walked all the way home. She was scared, we were scared, it was just a very scary time!

~ Thanks for voting in the bedtime poll. My MIL decided I put Andrew to bed too early. They go to bed at 9pm at the earliest; on nights where they have soccer or other activities it's even later. And they get up at 6am! John works nights so it's just me and the kids Monday - Friday. I just love how she wants to tell ME what to do in my home! Grrr.


~ Speaking of MIL, Andrew, & stress...getting Andrew back after an entire summer at MIL's, where there are basically no rules, is challenging, to put it mildly.

~ Okay, I have to confess to a bloggy pet peeve. When the name you use for comments has nothing to do with your blog, and/or is a very common name, I never know who is commenting unless I click the name and visit the profile. I have several people with the same name who comment frequently, and sometimes I assume they are all the same person and don't realize I have a new commenter who I should be visiting. It would be SO awesome if you could use (for example) the name "Mary @ Totally Awesome Blog" or "Totally Awesome Blogger" for comments!
*WHEW* I feel better now.



~ Thanks for participating in/commenting on my new meme, DysFUNctional MOMents! I think it will be fun and I really hope it catches on and takes off.



~ My guest post is up now over at Single Mom in the South! =)

~ The BFF & I sang this last Friday night at Karaoke. It's kind of our theme song! ;-)

Have a GREAT weekend!

Visit Mrs 4444 for more Friday Fragment fun!

End-of-Summer Fragments

Friday is here - time for fraggin'!!

~ Today the little kids meet their new teachers. (Shelbie is in high school; she got her schedule in the mail.) Elayna is SO excited! Andrew is at his Grandma's, and not a big fan of school, so I doubt he is quite as thrilled. LOL

~ School starts Monday. I can't quite believe it. I'm not ready for the early mornings and early bedtimes; we have kept a very different, night-owl schedule all summer and I'm much more suited for that.

~ I have a pretty fun weekend ahead. Tonight I'm going out for karaoke with my BFF Danielle, and on Saturday they are having a huge birthday party for her grandmother, and John and I will be attending. And bringing my world-famous potato salad.

~ They are already selling candy corn and those yummy pumpkins at Walgreens. I love them, and I love fall, but wow....already??

~ I have decided to start a new meme/carnival/whateveryouwanttocallitthingy.

I'm going to call it "DysFUNctional MOMents", and I'm going to share the Dysfunctional Mom Moments that I've had during the past week, and invite y'all to join in! What do you think? I'm going to give it a test run on Tuesday, so if you already have a Dysfunctional MOMent to share (and you know you do!), get it ready! You can post it on your blog and link up, and I'll also have guest bloggers here sharing their DysFUNctional MOMents.

Like that time your daughter was crying that her thumb hurt but you thought she was just being a drama queen and then you took her to the ER the next day and it was actually broken.

Oh wait, that was me.

Okay, like that time you took your son's lizard outside so it could get some sun but you forgot about it all day and it sort of.....baked. To death.

Oh wait, that was me, too.

Okay, enough of my your DysFUNctional MOMents, let's save the rest for Tuesday!

I'm sure you have all heard about the tragedy that happened at the Sugarland Concert at the Indiana State Fair last week. I'm a huge Sugarland fan and wanted to share one of their songs today. It's hard to choose just one; I love almost every song they've ever recorded, but this is one of my favorites. My prayers are with all of those affected by the tragedy.

Imma Let You Finish...

...but I have some of the cutest kids of all time.

Elayna, 2 yrs old (currently 10 yrs old)

Shelbie, about 18 months. (currently 15 yrs old)

Andrew, about 18 months. (currently 11 yrs old)

Tim, 2 yrs old. (currently 18 yrs old)

OF ALL TIME!!

Check out these chicks for more

Wordful Wednesday posts!

Tying the Knot in my City

Visit Unknown Mami for more SIMC posts!

Happy Stuff

I'm the kind of person who tries very hard to focus on the positive. It's not always easy, but I still try. That's why my blog may seem to be mostly about the good things in my life; because that's what I choose to focus on. Sometimes there's a bunch of crap going on, but I'm not throwing it all out there because that's not how I choose to live my life. I push the negative to the back burner, and find SOME kind of happy to focus on!

But right now I have to say that there is just so much happy in my life. In fact the only real UN-happy thing going on, is the whole situation with Andrew & his BM. But I am handling that as well as I can by knowing that we're doing absolutely everything in our power to protect him.

But the happy stuff - so much happy stuff! Big things, little things, all sorts of things.




Summer is almost here, which means a more relaxed schedule, more time at the beach or the springs, less stress and homework and all that junk!




My son is graduating, and as emotional as that makes me, it also makes me very happy. I am so proud of him.




OH! I finally got a cupcake, and what a cupcake it was. Friday night we had our church Ladies' Group meeting, and the host made Boston Cream cupcakes with chocolate ganache frosting. I have no words. OK maybe a few. Amazing. Incredible. DELICIOUS!!!




When I left my job at the hospital last year, I felt very strongly that I was being led to go into the home health care field. I had wanted to do that for a long time, and felt like it was time. But over the last few months as things have fizzled out, I wondered if maybe I was wrong. Maybe this wasn't what I was supposed to do. Maybe I just needed to have this time with my family (I still think that was part of it). Was I being led in a different direction? And then, this opportunity grabbed me, and now, here I am (literally) doing my first home health care job! Everything fell into place and I am so pleased. They even encouraged me to bring my laptop and spend time on the computer while my client is sleeping! HELLO, can you say perfect job for a blogger? Sweet!

There are blackberry bushes EVERYWHERE at our place, and they're starting to get ripe. I can't wait to start making cobblers!



Lots of good things are going on, and coming up, in our lives. Sometimes it seems like things are just falling into place. Like the puzzle is coming together to make a beautiful picture. And that makes me happy!

Visit Mamarazzi for more Happy Lists!