Road Trip 2012 (part 1)

The states we've driven through, except Iowa. 

We are about halfway through our exciting road trip vacation of summer 2012. So far, we have been subjected to temperatures of 114 in the shade with grass that is so dry that it's like hay - in the Midwest.  However, we get to the dessert, and we have found the greenest softest grass along with temps only in the low 90's with 0 humidity.  

Tony and I slept outside last night, on my grandmother's balcony.  We both slept really well, and now the kids are jealous and want to sleep out there too.

 

We had such a great time in Kansas.  We went to Kansas to visit my dad and family.  We saw so much family!  New babies, older babies, Aunts, Uncles, step-siblings, new families, etc.  We had such a great time!  I even made dinner for my dad on Sunday.  My spaghetti sauce may have been spicy, according to my dad, but I thought it was great. Everyone loved the meatballs!  I rock the meatballs!

I have been having such a great time spending time with my husband.  He is such a great guy.  You sometimes can forget, with the hustle and bustle of everyday life, that you married him for a reason.  You get so caught up with everyday life, that you forget how it is to be alone with him.  He's been so much fun to be around.  He is talking so much more, joking, having fun with the girls, taking the girls on bike rides, playing, coloring, reffing fights.  I just adore that man.

Olivia has colored about 75 pictures, as well as made about 10 friendship bracelets.  Right now, she's in the kitchen with her great-grandma making chocolate chip cookies.

Mia is sleeping right now.  She has been scamming food off of anyone that will feed her.  She's all "I'm hungry, I'm hungry, I'm hungry."  I normally tell her to get over it and she should eat when we give her food, not all day junk food.  She has turned into the terrible three's these last few weeks.  She's already broken at least one thing at grandma's house and is being a maniac.  

We have a few more days left in New Mexico before we take the long long long drive home.  Here are some road pictures for you to enjoy.

POPCORN!!!!

My swimmer is kind of dorky in these awesome goggles. 

The first leg - watching a movie.

Showing Tony my teeth?  Maybe there was popcorn in it and I needed his help to get it out.  He would help me with that too.

What do you get when you mix a lamb, a wolf and pregnancy? A baby shower, of course!

Did you miss me?  Probably not.  I'm sure that you all lead super busy lives and come to me when you need a quick bit of entertainment, or something.  But, I'm happy to be here, happy to have you coming back.

It's been a short few weeks.  Have I told you that it's birthday central around these parts in July?  Friends, family, me - we all were born in the awesome month of July.  Speaking of which, I turned 34 years young last Friday.  I think I might understand that saying better now.  I don't feel 34.  I don't feel that I am old - or just older.  I feel young.  Hence, the saying, 34 years young.  I am excited for 34.  I feel a good year coming on!

Speaking of birthdays, I had hoped my preggy pal would drop that baby on my birthday, but, no dice.  She is still uncomfortably, unhappily, pregnant waiting on the little one to make their entrance.  And, since it's been awhile and I haven't told you about the shower, I thought I'd fill you in.

When I found out she was pregnant, I immediately had ideas about this shower. I was planning on puppies and kittens, lambs and ducks.  Typical baby animals to decorate a shower.  I was going to work with her mom on a venue, treats, games, all things shower.  So, as we headed into spring we started talking about the shower.

No puppies - well, maybe some puppies.  No kittens.  No monkeys.  No elephants or giraffes.  No ducks, well, maybe.  Definitely some lambs.  And wouldn't it be funny if we did the lamb themed shower at a wolf ranch?  Haha?

Just like that - my little pretty fantasy shower went "poof."  Up in smoke.  But, that's ok.  It's not my shower, right?  If she wants wolves, this will be the best damn wolf shower ever!

So, I helped her mother to set up this wolf shower.  Truth be told, her mom did so much more than I did, but I helped where I could.  I helped with the registering, as well as making and bringing some food, and helped with decorating and some of the clean up.

There was a, um, presentation?  The owner of this ranch did a presentation.  He talked about the animals, how he takes care of the animals, the types of presentations and things that he does with the animals, about the blood lines of the animals and how you can tell if there are canine genes mixed in with the wolves.  He also had a bear - and he got in the cage with said bear.  Some of us may have been hoping wondering if we'd see a mauling, but he came out safely.

Also, there were crazy storms just to the north of us.  We got rained on a little, and some wind, but then it cleared up and got super hot.  It was a great shower, and I think everyone really had a good time!  Who knew, a shower at a wolf ranch would be so awesome?!

Here are some pics from the day:

The black bear - just sitting up.  Like "ay, boo boo, there's people around."

Rollin' in the deep, yo

Crazy wolf - possibly a Newfoundland??  I don't really remember, so please don't quote me.

Giant wolf paws.  Seriously.  She had some monster mitts.

Ginormous dog that reminded me of the flying dog from the Never Ending Story.

Coyote

Skunk.  Yeah, you needed me to tell you that, right?

Groundhog.

Wolf pup.  Cute, but only liked men, unless to chew on, then he went for women and children.

Random foul of some sort that would start to yell and run at weird times.

I got some wicked awesome shots of the fence.  Oh, and there's a wolf behind it too.

Freakin' ugliest duck I have ever seen.

The roosters would crow all day long (hello?  it's afternoon).  Then, they would chase whatever humans were around or gang rape a chicken.  Crafty little nasty birds.

I forgot to mention the cougar - but, here it is.

Preggers and Sam

Preggers, Mr. Preggers, Mom of Preggers (with skunk) and Brother of Preggers, all intently enjoying the show.

Lamb decorations.  They did make it safely home and were not mauled by any cotton wolves.

Party-goers hiding from the rain.

Lamb and animal themed diaper cake, courtesy of Mom of Preggers.

Forgive me if I go astray...

Tonight, I have decided that the nightly journal be done electronically.  So, I hauled my computer up to my bed, and am journal-ing as I hear the dishwasher running downstairs, Mia finally sleeping and Olivia finally quiet after a huge shower meltdown tonight.

Done.

That's how I'm feeling about today.  I'm tired.  But, I haven't blogged in awhile and I feel bad.  I know I have a few readers (whom I love and thank you for coming back to read about my craziness), and I feel a little lost when my regular bloggers just stop for awhile.  I'm sorry for being gone.  

It's not that I haven't wanted to blog.  It's not that I haven't had stories to tell and pictures to share (pictures are uploading as we speak.  READ: multi-tasking).  It's that I have been busy.  I know, I know.  We're all busy, Tara.  Yes, and with that business, sometimes, I just get too tired to sit down and actually write things down.  (READ: watches TV instead of writing - Lazy).

Now that I'm actually blogging, I'm a little worried that I may run off on tangents, or just follow my own trains of thoughts out of stations and into completely new and unexplored stations.  Forgive me if that happens.

Mia - taking her 32 lbs and walking away from me.

One of the things I've been meaning to write about is my ongoing battle to drop weight.  I'm down 40 lbs now.  That's right, 40.  It's almost 50!  Do you know what that means to me?  It means that I have lost more weight than my youngest weighs.  It means that I can cross my legs again.  It means that I can leave them crossed comfortably and under tables.  It means that my legs are beginning to be nice shapely legs again (instead of overstuffed sausages).  It means that I bought a size 16 swimsuit for the first time since I don't even know when.  And thank goodness that it's a swimsuit and stretchy.  It really only fits my chest and is rather skin-hugging every where else (READ: no boobs).  Also, the bottoms are shorts and I'm not so sure I can sit down in them.  But - the point is, I bought a swimsuit, and it doesn't look horrible on me.  And I will rock that suit on vacation, if not before, while standing up.

I'm actually really happy with myself right now.  I've been watching what I eat, tracking, weighing, measuring, portioning, sticking to fruits and veggies, as well as being more active.  Now that the weather has calmed down a bit and we can go out again, the girls and I have been out pretty much every night.  Either we bike ride (Mia and her extra 30 lbs) on my bike, or we walk (Mia and her extra 30 lbs on my shoulders).  Even if I'm slow, at least I'm getting out there and dragging my kids out with me.

In other news, my mom and sister are on a road trip from Mississippi to Seattle as my mom has landed a job in Seattle and is moving there.  Cari is going to "help her move" (hang with friends and check out Seattle), and will be coming back to Mississippi in a month or so to start college at Ole Miss.  Tony and I have always wanted to see the Pacific Northwest - now, will we finally get a chance, and try to make it a priority?

Also, my brother Derrick is back in New York.  We are trying to get him to move back to Chicago.  I miss him.  Like, a lot.  He is a super fun person to be around.  Amazingly creative and gives me crap just as much as he can talk seriously with me.  I know I probably still won't see him much, but if he's here, there's always a chance that we can make a random weekend that much more fun by visiting him in the city.

He's single ladies!

As I mentioned before, that I was loading pictures, I still have to tell you about the Wolf Ranch Baby Shower.  It will have to wait though.  I'm anticipating the birth of this newbie (on my birthday) sometime soon.  I am so very excited for this baby.  I am excited to watch the transformation of my friend from non-mom to new-mom.  This is going to be a fun year!

Blogging as therapy...

I haven't been writing in here as much as I wanted lately.  You see, this blog has been evolving for me.  In the four years that it has been up, it started as a way to keep in touch with family and to display pictures of my kids and how they were growing.  To give the necessary updates to family and friends, without the need to be on the phone multiple hours a day/week, telling and re-telling the same stories.  Not that I don't love to be on the phone, I'm just working with less time every day to do all that needs to be done.  I'm sure you know how it is.  :)

Back to my point, the blog has become in the last year or so a way for me to release some of the stresses that I feel, or talk about my feelings or thoughts.  I've found that in my grown up life there is very little of talking about these things going on - but way too much thinking about things going on.  With all those thoughts floating around in my head, I can get pretty stressed, stop sleeping, and generally tie myself up in knots.  Thankfully, this blog and a journal have been helping me to untangle the mess inside.

There are still times though, when I get overwhelmed.  When I don't have Tara time and I start to lose myself again.  When the only time I have is on my commutes to and from work and I start to think about things and work through them.  That is generally not enough for me, these one hour drives to and from work.  It's not the time that's not enough, it's the action.  Mulling and driving is not the stress relief I need.  I need to take those thoughts and write them down, so I can see where my thoughts are really taking me.  They have direction, but I need a way to decipher that.

These past few months have been stressful with surgeries, birthdays, holidays, family parties, planning vacation, friend time, family visits, family time, dance recital, end of school, start of summer, home redecoration and work craziness to boot.  Right now, is the first time I have sat down and done something productive at home in a few weeks. 

This craziness does not seem to be relenting and I may not be here as much as I want in the next few weeks/months.  I wanted to say thank you for reading this blog.  It means so much to me that you catch up with my craziness.  I will try to be here more, but please be patient with me.  I know that when I'm back, I'll have some stories for you.  I mean, I was at a Wolf Ranch baby shower this past weekend.  I'm sure you want to see pictures of that. :)