Little Pond on the Prairie

My new goal for my blog is making/taking/stealing time to log on to the computer when I'm at home! Friday, we shopped for Easter and DS11's birthday. Saturday was the party with his friends playing laser tag. Sunday the normal Easter activities minus the egg hunt. Just a quick note about a lessoned learned from each day:

Friday (Shopping): Do not plan an enjoyable shopping trip with DF and DS11. It will never be enjoyable. Just take the money and run with DD12.

Saturday (11 Year Old Birthday Party): 11 year old boys are just plain odd.

Sunday (Easter): It snowed on Easter! It's not supposed to snow on EASTER! There was no outdoor egg hunt. Maybe I'll plan one in April just for something fun and out of the ordinary!

I am ready for baseball season. Mother nature is not. We have experienced 10 inches of rain in 2 days! My optimistic, on spring break, 16 year old was convinced he would be playing his 4:30pm game today! I just received the game cancellation notice from highschoolsports.net (wonderful website) in my email. They cancelled a half dozen games last year and it looks like we're on the same pattern again this year. He is a sophomore this year and should be starting catcher on JV. He sat most of last year to an upper classman. So we are hoping for more glove-time this year!

Sign ups for dd12 and ds11 were last week so after April 1 we'll be keeping up with the practice schedules.

The most excitement for baseball this year will be the MLB team that I will be cheering for. Growing up my teams varied. I was a big Phillies fan in preteen years. Then moved onto George Brett and the KC Royals till my late teen years. Then I settled in on the Cardinals, having more opportunities to attend games there. Between my parents, there has been the long argument of exactly who a Southern Illinois resident should root for: Mother-we live in Illinois, should be a Cub fan (the sox were never mentioned....) Father- we live an hour and a half from Busch Stadium, should be a Cardinal fan! I sided with my Dad... until this year.

This is THE year for the Cubs. It's simple. I will root for them this and only this year. I believe that since their last WS championship was 1908, it is fitting that they should have the title in 2008. Besides, it's not looking like the Cards will have much excitment going on. I might as well make our household exciting. DF is a Cardinals fan.

I know true fans don't just jump around from team to team and I'm not being a fair-weathered fan! I'm rooting for the Cardinals against everyone else, as long as the Cubs come out on top THIS year!

Obviously we're all a little bit older since my last post! I am now the mother/stepmonster to children the following ages: 16, 12, 11 (on Monday), and 2. They have only aged 2 years since my last post as I feel I've aged at least 6 years, thanks to the 16 year old! I'm sure that needs no explanation to most readers! (Pretend as if there are actual readers!)

Other than aging, it's depressing, now that I think about how much has not changed. We are still in the same trailer, still not married, still at my same job...... Oh wait that changed today!

I have been a secretary at the same company for over 11 years. I just accepted a job with the same company in the planning department. More work - more money - same long drive!

We are gearing up for baseball season. 3 of the 4 kids will be playing this year.

We successfully made it through football season for 2 years with no "major" injuries. Although we did visit the emergency room a couple of times for x rays - at the advice of the "trainer". We now believe he is "in" with the hospital and gets a commission on visits and length of stay!

We have enjoyed actually having a winter here in the Midwest. We had our share of the snow and "wintry mix" as they call it! They actually closed the plant a few days! Now we are ready for spring! (Oh happy day today!)

Short term goals for my blog:
1. Think of something to call the kids / fiance other than DS16, DF, etc.
2. Download / print / file - Do something with the 800 pictures I have on my camera!!!! (Not all for the blog, but I'd like to insert one or two!

I'm going to attempt this once again. I can't believe it's been since 2006 that I posted last! I have a lot of thinking and organizing to do! I want to blog - just what I want to blog about is the big question which I'm sure everyone that has created a blog has thought about - maybe! Whatever it is I want to make it interesting which is something I'm not sure that I am sometimes. Maybe if I can stick with this daily it will help me find my nitch! Maybe if I stick with exercising at least 3 days a week I could lose some of that baby fat that is going on 3 years old now, too! I read so many blogs that are interesting - but to be different is the key! Something to keep them coming back for more, even if they don't really know why! Good Luck to Me!

As I laid in bed this morning unable to sleep, there was only one question that keep creeping into my mind; Where the hell did the weekend go? Then, as I seem to be doing more often these days, I answered myself; Baseball, Baseball, Baseball! DS14 and DS9 were both playing in a Forth of July baseball tournament about an hour away from where we live. It's actually the same town where I work and grew up. DS14 and I lived there until 2003 when we moved in with DF. DS14 had a really good weekend. He's the catcher and the incentive of playing against his old buddies helped him to have a really good game, even though they lost; it was a personal victory for him. DS9 was on a team with mostly 10 year olds so, he didn't see much action this year, although he is a very good player. Next year he will be starting as a 10 year old. DS14 stayed down there with his grandparents last night as he has another game today- which he "gave" me permission to miss. Although I don't miss many; he pleads that he plays better when I'm not there - obviously I won't be there on the day the "scouts" are watching! MIL in hinting that she hasn't seen the baby enough so BG will probably spend most of the day over there today! OK - those of you that keep up will realize that this will leave us childless for most of today and possibly this evening! HELP! What do people do when they don't have their kids? Happy Monday morning to all!

Finally. My last day of work for the summer! I feel like a kid going to school on the last day before summer vacation. I have saved enough work to actually do today so the day doesn't crawl by. I have been at this job for 10 years this coming September. Can you say, "Redundant"? However, there will be some changes when I come back in August. New boss - actually an old boss that's coming back to the company. Not my favorite one, but we both are having a positive outlook. There will be some new processes in place and I will be a central part of that- so I may actually look forward to coming back to work. Wouldn't it be nice, though, if I could find a work at home job during these six weeks that I'm off? Come on creative juices - get flowing! Mama needs a new pair of shoes! ( and some new shorts, a bigger vehicle, a house instead of a trailer, etc.)

I had a new perspective of things last night at the baseball field. I was sitting on the bottom row of bleacher- listening to the hum of motherly conversations behind me. As I was giving my 7 month old daughter her first biter biscuit, my 14 year old son came up to bat. WOW! I'm sure there are other mothers with larger gaps between 1st/last children, but, for me, WOW! My two "step" children (hate the term and looking for another way to describe two wonderful children that feel like mine, but, sadly for us, must spend more time in their mother's home than ours) - Anyway, they fall in between at 11 and 9, which does help the overall picture - But as my son will graduate from high school in the spring of 2010, my daughter will begin school the fall of 2011!

I am so blessed with wonderful children - all 4 of them. Polite, outgoing, average or better students, and yeah, that baby is pretty smart too!

An old Family Circus cartoon hangs on our refrigerator and my wall at work:

"Enough! This is a lecture; not a debate!"

I'm so happy that my life could be a cartoon strip or sitcom - it could be so much worse!

Well, that idea of trying to blog daily went over really well, didn't it? I'm writing down some goals for myself and keep this up at least every couple days is big on the list.

We are in the middle of baseball season for DS14, DD11, DS8 - the baby is wonderful! We are so blessed that she is a healthy, very happy baby! She will be 7 months old soon. She has been sleeping through the night for 5 months! She is the blessing in my life, right now. Work, money, running - it all just seems so overswhelming right now!

But I won't be held back - I have some really good (although, not brand new) ideas that I'm going to work on over the next few weeks. I am fortunate enough to be off work for 6 weeks during the summer. No I'm not a teacher, but we have a plant shutdown that makes this job worth driving 80 miles (round trip) per day!

I have a new look on my blog - brighter, cheerier! So here's my 2nd chance - cross your fingers!

It's been 3 months since my last post! I can't believe how time has flown! Most importantly, we welcomed Shelby Janelle on December 1st, 2005. 7lb. 8oz. She is beautiful! I can just watch her constantly. And now that I am unfortunately back to work, Ijust stare at her picture, wishing it was time to go home. She is such a good baby, as long as you keep her little belly full. She has 3 very proud and helpful siblings and a Daddy that is already wrapped around that little finger! My favorite time with her is when I feed her at 4:30 in the morning before I go to work. She is bottle feeding, but this makes it a little easier on Daddy when he has to take her to the sitter. It is so quiet in the house and just she and I in the rocker. She smelled so good this morning after her bath last night. She just looks at me with those big blue eyes over that bottle and we talk about all the things that we're gonna do. It gets more difficult each day to leave her.
She has been wonderful with all the running that we have been doing. She goes to the basketball games with us- with 3 kids involved, there seems to be at least one game every day. We also support the local high school team on the weekends! Sometimes she sleeps and other times she's just content with everyone waiting for their turn to hold her. She has been very healthy so far. DF has been sick since we brought her home. Mostly sinuses. The kids have had colds, but so far, Shelby has remained quite healthy.
She's growing so quickly. At 5 weeks she was already up to 10lbs. I just wish that time would move a little more slowly. I can wait for her to crawl and walk. I'm content to finally have her here with her big grin.