Sorry it's been a while!

    I can't believe I haven't blogged since September!  October was a fun month and full of activities.  The beginning of the month was the best because my in-laws and best friend Carlene and her son Hayden came to visit.  Ethan was getting baptized and it was also Balloon Fiesta weekend.  What an amazing friend I have to fly all the way from D.C. to see us!  We became friends in Ohio but really took that time for granted and ended up becoming even closer after moving away from each other.  It's hard to find a friend that accepts you for who you are, loves you without judgement, and can be blunt and honest with you always.  I love you Carlene!  It was a total surprise to Ethan that Hayden would be coming and they had a blast together.  They have been friends since they were 4 and have always acted like brothers.  It was as if they had never been apart and it had been 2 years since they'd seen each other. 
    After they all left we had a couple of weeks of normal :) I had so many plans for Halloween week which included making tons of cake pops for my friends and the kids' teachers.  I love Halloween so much!  The Wednesday before Halloween I woke up feeling some sharp pains in my lower abdomen.  I thought it was just gas.  It wouldn't let up though.  I took Clara to dance and she performed a Halloween dance with her class and I was miserable.  Right after we all went up to the school for Clara's parent-teacher conference and as we were walking in I told Ben that I had chills and felt horrible.  We made it through the conference and I was in pain the rest of the evening.  I was in total denial that anything was wrong because I didn't want to ruin or miss Halloween.  The next morning I woke up with the pain more localized to my lower right abdomen and decided I better go to the ER.  I took Meredith to my friend Melanie's and luckily there was no one in the ER so I got right in.  After lots of waiting (imagine that!) and a cat scan they confirmed that I had appendicitis.  I was so upset and was bawling!  My nurse was extremely sweet and stayed with me and held my hand while I cried.  Of all the weeks for this to happen!  This was at about 4:00 and Ben was already home and picking kids up from school.  My friend Melanie happily took the kids for the night and we were so grateful.  Thank you!  I had to be transferred to downtown for my surgery.  After being transferred by ambulance when I had Meredith I certainly didn't think I'd be doing that again so soon!  My surgery went well and I was so grateful to have Ben and my lovely friend Linda there with me.  I was really scared!  My recovery was awful because I was so sick from the anesthesia.  I got to go home the next evening and by then my awesome mother-in-law had already arrived.  She started packing as soon as she found out and drove the 12 hours to get here AND she was recovering from cataract surgery.  Wow!  She stayed a week and didn't let me lift a finger and I'm so grateful to her.  I don't know what I would do without her.  The recovery really took about 2 1/2 weeks to feel normal again.  I feel like I missed so much but that's life. 
    This last week I took the kids with me to Phoenix for the So You Think You Can Dance concert.  I had bought tickets for Ethan and I to go months ago and we were so excited.  Ben's sweet cousin, Kalene, let us spend the night and she watched the girls for me.  It was a blast and such a special memory to have with Ethan.  He said it was the best night of his life!  The 8-9 hour drive there and back was pretty awful though because Clara and Ethan (he got it on the trip back) had a stomach bug and let's just say they weren't throwing up.  It was awful and really scared me into not taking the trip to Texas during Christmas break.  As much as I want to go, it would be so so hard to do that without Ben. 
    This week is Thanksgiving and I am a little bummed that we don't have anyone to spend it with.  Our friends are all leaving or having family come so it's just us.  I want a houseful to feed!  We are actually going to do something out of the ordinary and go out to eat.  I don't want to cook all that food when our kids won't eat hardly any of it.  There is a casino here that has a huge Thanksgiving buffet that we'll probably go to.  We figure why not since this will be our last year to celebrate without family.  We are so excited and ready to move to Utah! 
    Here are a few random pics of the kids:

Not a good week.....

Why is it when Ben goes out of town my life falls apart?  That's the kind of week I'm having and it's only Tuesday!  Ben is in Germany for 8 days and I'm actually really happy for him.  I can't wait to see what he brings me!  Something happened yesterday that completely blindsided me and kind of rocked my world.  I won't name names or go into details but a friend found out something that I did and without knowing my intention decided not to be my friend anymore.  Just like that.  Even after explaining myself it didn't matter.  My intentions were completely innocent by the way but she or her husband just don't care.  She also told me that she has "needed some distance" from me for a while because of other things that I have done to offend her.  She won't tell me those things either which I think is pretty spineless.  Accussing someone of offending you multiple times but not telling them what is so immature.  This is someone who I considered one of my best friends here, someone I've been very close friends with for 2 years.  How can you just throw away a friendship like that?  I truly have done nothing to her.  In fact, I've been a darn good friend to her and have a completely clear conscience of anything pertaining to her.  I love her and care about her still but I am angry.  I am angry that I trusted her and told her things about my personal life that no one else knows.  I also feel like a fool for thinking that we were friends and inviting them over, hanging out, etc all the while she is thinking she doesn't want anything to do with me.  She should get an Academy award for acting like my friend because she did a great job at it.  I know of 2 more people that think they are her friend but behind their back she has told me that she can't stand them.  I never thought I'd be "one of those friends" to her.  Of all of my friends here she is the last one that I'd ever think to have drama with.  I am so hurt and now wonder who she has talked to about me and who is really my friend here.  If she can do this to me then who else?  I know of one other family that they have involved and now I'm here to wonder who else she has gossiped to about me.  I just can't stand to think that I am being accused of something that I didn't do.  I have to go to church with all of these people too which should be fun.  I am shocked that as close as we are, she didn't give me the benefit of the doubt.  If you really care about and respect someone you should.  You never know people's true intentions or what they are going through in their private lives.  I have a very dear and wise friend here that I called bawling yesterday.  She came straight to my house, brought me ice cream, talked, cried with me, and helped me put the kids to bed.  It's hard to find people like her who see you as you are and love you without judgment.  She has lots of life experience too and had lots of great advice to give. I cried so much yesterday evening that I gave myself a migraine.  I swear when we move I am not making any friends!  I have family there and I think I'll just stick with that.  Seriously, I have had more drama living here than in any other place.  I think that because I have had so much real, legitimate drama in my life with my mother that these things that people get so upset over are so trivial to me.  Don't sweat the small stuff people!  It makes me think "these people don't know what being hurt really is."  I had an extremely traumatic childhood which I struggle everyday to get past so this is all just nonsense to me.  It baffles me what people get offended over.  These people let these tiny things ruin friendships which is just sad.  It feels good to write this all down so thanks for reading and letting me vent.  Hopefully my week will get better from here.

Our First Camping Trip

Ok, so it wasn't our FIRST camping trip but it was our first time camping alone as a family.  We tent camped too!  We went to the Redondo campground in the Jemez Mountains about an hour away.  You learn a lot on your first solo camping trip, at least we did.  First pack warm clothes, hats, gloves, etc. even if you don't think it will be cold enough for them.  The weather report said it would be 50 at the lowest.  Wrong!  It got down to 35 and we only brought light jackets.  Crappy parent award for us!  The kids were so whiny Saturday morning when they woke up freezing.  I had slept beside Meredith and she woke me up at least 10 times saying she was freezing even though I did everything I could to keep her warm.  These kids don't know what it's like to be uncomfortably cold!  We'd tell them to stand by the fire and the girls would say "But it's too smoky!"  There was nothing we could do to calm Meredith down either.  Or so we thought.  Finally she was being so bad that Ben put her in time out...in the sun.  Genius.  She calmed down and we ended up having a wonderful day!  We also forgot some things like a can opener, broom/dust pan (for tent) and hot chocolate.  How could we forget that?  It is kind of sad that this was our only and last chance to camp here in New Mexico.  I wish we would have done it sooner!  Now that we've experienced our first solo camping trip I can foresee many more to come, though.  Hopefully more in Ben's parent's trailer than the tent but now I know we can survive this way :)  Here are some of my favorite pictures of our trip.   

A Great Day for a Picnic!

A couple of weeks ago our friend Linda invited us to go on a picnic with her. She just can't believe all of the fun things we haven't done yet while living here and wants to show it all to us. She is the sweetest! So we picked her up and drove about 40 minutes to Las Huertas in Placitas NM. We found a great spot to picnic and it was right by a stream. The kids had a blast playing in the water, catching butterflies, and exloring. Ethan got in a little baseball practice too. We had a feast of KFC chicken and sides, fresh veggies and fruit, and a yummy peach cobbler that I made. It was a wonderful day!

4th of July

We had a great 4th of July weekend this year!  We went to the city fireworks show and then on Sunday afternoon had friends over to celebrate.  I love this holiday because of the colors, the food, the patriotism I feel, and the fireworks. Our neighborhood firework show on Sunday night was awesome.  We had some and our friends brought lots too.  The Gallagher's brought the big stuff though!  Our neighbors on both sides of us had the huge ones too so we had one heck of a show.  It was fun to hang out with old friends and get to know new ones.  It's weird to think that we will be in a different house next year for 4th of July!

Swim Lessons

Our 2 weeks of swim lessons were fun! Ethan hadn't had lessons since he was about 4 and it was the girls' first time. They were ALL in class at the SAME time! (All in a different class though) Ethan was awesome and was the leader of his class. He has no fear and is such a great swimmer! Drastic change from when he was 2-3 and we were living in our apt in San Antonio. It had a beautiful pool that we couldn't enjoy because he was terrified of the water! Clara is normally pretty good in the water but when it came time for class she clammed up and wouldn't do anything. It was very frustrating! She said that she had fun, though. Meredith, well she was entertaining for sure. Everyday she would randomly just walk away from her teacher and class and lean over on the wall. I think she did it for the attention from her teacher because she would stop what she was doing and say "Come on Meredith! Come back to class with us!" When I would go over to coax her to go back she would say "I don't like my friends!" Silly girl.  Finally her teacher got a clue and just ignored her and so did I.  Of course when she realized no one was watching she went right back over to class and followed directions.  She did have fun and learned several new tricks like putting her face in the water and her favorite, the alligator crawl. I enjoyed the time during class too because I brought my lounge chair and got to lay out in the sun and relax for about 35-40 min. It was wonderful! Here are some pictures that I snapped one day. I didn't take too many because that would disrupt my "me time" right? :)

(Blogger is being weird so the pics are small.  Just click on them to view them larger.)

Silly Kids!

The kids were in the craziest mood one evening a few weeks ago so I had to get the camera out and capture their cute personalities. Not everyone gets to see this side of the them! Goofballs!