Happy Anniversary

19 years ago I married the man of my dreams. David & I met in 1982 while we were in college at the University of Florida (GO GATORS!!). We didn't date for long but I definitely fell in love pretty quickly. After my mom passed away in 1985 David paid a visit, & we spent the next year talking to each other. When we did finally agree to meet up in 1986, we got back together & have been inseparable since then.

I admit it. There have been some rough patches over the years. It's really funny how marriage makes you notice things. It was typical, but after getting married I thought my head would explode from the frustration over finding out that David squeezes his toothpaste wherever his hand hits while I squeeze it from the bottom. Thankfully, we dealt with that one easily enough. We each have our own toothpaste. Yup. It was hard. ;-)

Of course there were harder issues over the years. On the other hand, there has been a deep & abiding love & respect for each other. We have a good, solid friendship based upon that love & respect & a few similar interests. We both love to read, listen to music & watch tv - just not the same stuff.

Yes, we argue. BUT we love each other enough to make those times minor. Marriage is work - hard work.

And I'd do it all over again!

I love you David. 459! AWBB! No matter what! Always & forever!

Birthday Visit

Last night we had our annual birthday visit with our friends Susan & Art & their girls. Erin & Julianna are from the same SWI, are 5 days apart & were adopted at the same time. Since that time, Susan & Art have adopted another daughter, Bella, who is about a month older than Erin. Each year, we celebrate the 3 girls' birthdays together. Our virtual triplets are amazing girls that we all love. Although Erin loves Julianna & Bella tons, she spends the week before the visit talking about how she's going to see Hannah & Livia.

I really enjoyed sitting together with our families enjoying a nice meal while our girls chatted & played. After dinner, we went over to a Starbucks (big surprise there), enjoyed our beverages of choice, chatted some more & watched the girls play. I can't believe how much energy they have!

Each year I take a picture of our girls so I can see how they've grown. This year they did something interesting. Usually, without even realizing it, the girls line up by age - oldest to youngest. This time they just lined up whereever. I didn't even notice it until I was looking at the pictures this morning.

Name Game MeMe

My friend Sandra tagged me! This looks like fun until you realize how hard it is to describe yourself!

1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.
2. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don't have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
3. When you are tagged, you need to write your own blog post containing your own middle name game facts.
4. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged & to read your blog!

R - reading. I'm a total book-aholic. Actually, I've been known to read the back of cereal boxes just to have something to read. Some of my favorite authors are Norah Roberts, Iris Johannsen, Sandra Brown, Lisa Gardner, Catherine Coulter & Lisa Jackson. I also love the Harry Potter series. BTW, I absolutely do not read newspapers. When I read, I'm looking for escape - not reality. For reality there's the news.

O - observant. I seem to pick up on things about people that are important. This trait helps me at work with my clients but also allows me to be a good friend. (At least I hope so.)

B - bleeding heart. I'm a sucker for a sob story, a crying child, an animal in need or sick, a person in need. I cry at commercials or reading cards. I haven't eaten veal in 20 years. Get the picture?

I - in love. With my husband of 19 years next Tuesday. I'd do it all over again - mistakes & all!

N - nuggets. "Nuggets" is what I say when I really want to say "S&^T!" I'm trying to have a cleaner mouth - especially around Erin the child who repeats it all. Nuggets is also the one thing I know that Erin will eat willingly.

Ah! Finally I'm done. Now on to torture the rest of you! Here are my victims:

Shari - I know how you love these tags/memes.

Vivian - I know you have nothing better to do. (That is other than chasing Kerri & Pookie around.)

Lisa - Take your time. I know that typing is still hard with your arm in bandages!

Michelle - This will give you a whole new type of headache. Sorry!

Lori - Something to do while you wait to bring Ethan home.

I hope you all have fun with this!!

The First Day of Kindergarten

Today was that oh so special day that children everywhere look forward to - some eagerly, some not so eagerly. It was the first day of Kindergarten. And Erin was no different.

We started off with a breakfast of pancakes & chocolate milk. I'm always thrilled to pieces when I can get Erin to eat but this is always a winner. My girl chowed down her pancakes happily knowing she was going to wear her favorite color today - pink. Really! Is there any other color? Normally getting Erin dressed is a fight from choosing what to wear to actually getting her into whatever outfit she's decided is okay for the day. This morning Erin decided that she liked the outfit & would be happy to get dressed fairly quickly.

I decided to go in to work late this morning so that I could share some special time with Erin. I'm so glad that I did this. Right as we got out of my car at her school, Erin decided to drag her feet. I guess it finally dawned on her that this was a different thing from camp. She gladly let me snap pics before we got inside.

Once we walked in to her class, Erin saw her friends from camp & last year's Pre-K classes. as we went to her cubby, she got nervous & asked me to stay for a while. Yay! for me. I stayed & chatted with one of the other mothers that I've gotten to know over the past few months. Erin chatted with her friends - especially Sam. They seem to really have fun together so it made the morning easier. I took a bunch of pics & then Erin decided she needed to snap some herself for her scrapbook. By the time I left, she was comfortable.

Tonight we celebrated her special day by having brownies for dessert. (Normally desserts are only allowed on Saturdays.) Then she finished off her day by playing with her Magnetix with her daddy. When she started to clean up (without being told), we knew the day had tired her out.

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The Pitty Kitty & a New Pet?

Well, David & I learned an important lesson today. Don't get a new pet if you're not sure how your old pet will react. No! We didn't make that mistake but almost did.

Our cat Kira is also known as "The Pitty Kitty." David bought her for me days after our dog Sari had to be put down 9 years ago. We had already made plans to buy a new dog but waiting for Star to be born was killing me. I hated not having an animal in the house. We were walking in to PetSmart just to look around for the new dog toys we'd need. Outside were the cats up for adoption. David wanted this really cool looking cat named "Arrow." Too bad Arrow just hated David. He actually spit at David. We ended up with this tiny cat who looked as if someone had poured a glass of iced tea on her.

Fast forward to this afternoon & once again we were walking into yet another PetSmart. This time we were looking for a specific cat food for Kira. This darn cat is allergic to chicken, turkey & can only eat lamb-based foods. After that horrible pet food scare a few months ago, we decided to put Kira on Purina cat chow. She had so many problems that today we went to buy her the old stuff.

David walked over to the cat adoption area to take a peek. We found a really sweet kitten & a 1 year old cat who both would have fit in great for us. David, Erin & I fell in love with them. Thankfully, I know my animals & said that we needed to see how the existing pets would do. The adoption lady took a towel & rubbed the kitten all over with it. The 1 year old cat rubbed herself all over me. We went home & David put Kira near the towel. She looked at him, stuck her tongue out & walked away. She wouldn't come near me till I changed shirts.

Guess what? We didn't get either cat. It looks like we're going to have to wait quite some time before we can bring home another pet. Erin wasn't too happy but still loves Kira "The Pitty Kitty."

What! Me? A Spammer?

Apparently Blogger is having problems deciding who is & who isn't a spammer. I went to post about Erin's birthday & found that I was blocked. What the heck!? It seems that if you link to too many places, you must be doing something wrong. I guess I can't be friendly with other bloggers or lead anyone off to a website that may be of interest. I wish I knew how to transfer my stuff over to Typepad because I'd leave fairly quickly for all this BS!!