MEET OUR NEWEST MEMBERS OF OUR FAMILY

This is Molly. We got her right before Christmas. At the time she was about 18 weeks old. She is a mess. We are still working on the potty training but hopefully we are in the end stages.


This is Guinea. Yes, Guinea the Guinea Pig. We still have Georgia. Georgia looks huge now when Guinea is next to her. Love those little rodents.

AUDITIONS FOR SPIDER MAN THE EARLY YEARS

haha just kidding, of course. But if they ever held auditions they would be there! Durring Christmas break I took Dalton and two of his friends to a kid activity center for some fun!

MY KARATE KID

I highly recommend Karate for all kids! And if you have a good Karate instructor they will even work with kids with disabilities. Oh by the way, Dalton is the one that has a lot of yellow showing on his shirt. He has such good balance and form! He is a green belt now. We are so proud of him and how far he has come. He has gained so much: confidence, balance, self esteem, disipline. I am sure there is more but it is late and I can not think.

ALOT HAS A HAPPENED IN THE PAST 2 YEARS

Yes, almost 2 years since I have blogged anything. I know there has been a lot going on but looking back I feel like I could have stopped now and then to make a post or two, right? Apparently not. I guess I will have to do some makeup post as I think of them. I am sure nothing will be in order.

Lets see.....Dalton is 9 now and in the third grade. Doing well. In second grade he was put on ADD medication. This year durring Christmas break we took him off of it and he is doing well. I pray we don't have to put him back on it. Not only did it take his appetite away but it changed his personality and it was getting worse. He has gained 6lbs. now ( he weighs a whopping whole 65lbs. now) and I have my wonderful, funny little boy back. He is staying focused at school and keeping his grades up. His teached said she really liked him being off of his medication. Us too!!! He is up to a green belt in Karate now.
Dalton started having headaches-really bad ones where he would cry they were so bad. After going through a CT scan and an EEG they decided he should go to the headache clinic at Childrens Hospital in Little Rock. They determined that he has hereditary migranes.
We have some new 4 legged critters in our family. 2 more dogs, a cat and 2 guinea pigs. Will post pics later.

My husband and I have always been antiquers. In 2010 we decided that maybe we should take our hobby and make it a job. After researching our local economy, available places to rent etc. we decided having our own store was not an option at this time. So, we started going to auctions, flea mkts. and garage sales and we would do Ebay, Craigslist (which I hate) and sell from our home. That has become quite a good deal for us. And I can still be a stay at home mom. This past November we opened up a booth in a local antique mall called Collecters Gallery. Two months later I now have 3 booths!!!

One of the things that really kept me from blogging was my own health. I started having severe (in my opinion it is severe) female problems. I guess some of it is standard for a middle aged woman but it is life changing, sometimes painful and quite an intrusion. IT DOES CHANGE YOUR QUALITY OF LIFE! But I don't think it should have to. I wont get to graphic. Lets just say I almost needed a blood transfusion. I have been on meds that they are commenly given to people who have cancer and HIV to keep them from losing weight and given to women who are in my situation too. But understand this drug also increases your appetite. I was hungry every 2 hours. If I didn't eat I would be starving by that third hour. I was ready to lick the paint off the walls!! I have gained A LOT of weight. I now have type II diabetes. I took myself off the meds last year and now just deal with the problem when it happens even though I had surgery (an ablation of the uterus) late 2010 where they burned out the lining of my uterus to make it better. It helped for a while anyway. Now I am having to try and get this weight off. NOT EASY. I was already quite fluffy. I don't know why my dr. thought that putting me on that particular medication would be the best for me. If it gets out of control again I am asking for a hysterectomy!!!!
I will try and post more as I think about it. And post pics as I can.

R.I.P COUSIN RICK

This past week we had the unfortunate event of a funeral. Mom, Michelle, Dalton and I drove to St.Louis for the funeral. Riding in a car with a seven year old can be nerve racking and hilarious. This trip as sad as it was had it's ups and downs of emotions from the visitation all the way to the trip home.
It just so happened that the same day of the visitation President Obama was in town to speak at a local high school. I knew this in advance from searching online for the write up on Ricks death. In our house we were joking around saying that Rick knew people in high places and that the president was coming for his funeral. I guess you just don't realize what all a kid picks up even when you are not talking directly to them. While we were at the visitation, we were sitting in the parlor and Dalton was sitting on my leg and he leaned over close to my face and I could see his eyes searching the room and he said "mom where is President Obama? I don't see him any where." That's right my poor son thought we were going to get up close and personal with the President!!!! hahahahaha It was hard to get him to understand that when we were talking about him being there it was just a joke.

While I am talking about Dalton funnies I need to pass this one along too. Right about the time we hit St.Louis Denny called. Dalton answered the phone and talked to him quite a while having the most serious and adult sounding conversation with him. Then, out of the blue he says "DAD, DOES MY BREATH STINK?" hahahahahahahahahahaha I am sure you have heard of smellovision well now you have heard of smellophone. I almost had to pull over I was laughing so hard that I was crying. I was given the phone, Dalton was very angry that we were laughing at him, and I could not help myself........I said to Denny...holding the phone to my armpit I said "did my deodorant wear off?" Okay so this may be one of those had to be there situations but I still get the giggles when I think about it!

LOBSTER ANYONE??

Okay so it is not really a lobster but the first time Dalton caught one of these out of the creek that runs through our yard Dalton came and said "look I caught a baby lobster!" I believe this is the biggest crawdad he has caught yet. It was released back into the water where maybe he will grow into an even bigger LOBSTER! haha

THE JOY OF ARTWORK

Denny recently gave Dalton a can of spray paint and a piece of large paper so he could create some "art." This was all done without me knowing it. I suppose after he was done with his creation on paper he decided to tag some trees with the paint. As you can see we now have our very own "happy" trees. We walked for several days past the trees without noticing them even once. Dalton informed Denny one day on their way to school of the unnoticed artwork. I love the smile on Dalton's face too. It is not very often that I can get him to pose for a picture much less smile.