EIGHT!!! Eight amazing years! Its hard to believe that me and Brian have been "exclusively dating" for almost a decade! Eight years of happiness, tears, smiles, cuddles, romantic nights, crazy days, fun, sadness, sorrow, joy, quiet kisses, happy dances, and a million memories. Heading to the lake this afternoon for an evening of swimming and fishing and super excited! Making a picnic dinner of turkey sandwiches and apples. So happy today! Brian picked up my glasses too, so I guess its official that I will be a four eyd freakazoid now, lmao! Hope everyone has as amazing of a day as me!!!

Its officially hermit season...

and I ain't talking about crabs! No, its that lovely time of the year when to me its really even too hot to go swimming. Oddly enough I am just not into the swimming this summer. I wish I knew why, but I guess because my few trips I have made this summer to the lake have been either swamped with people or for the first time I came home smelling like "the lake" this early in the year. Its been rediculously hot with many days near or at 100* already and we have another week of upper 90s coming....bleh! I think I am ready for that fall weather again!
Was up early this morning, like 4:25 early thanks to Athena pooping in her crate...again. She has decided that if she has to go she just goes, holding it seems to be something she just wont do overnight now if she has to poop. *sigh* So here I am sipping coffee listening to the dogs rumble behind me trying to plan my day...which in a way is good that I am up this early, maybe now I can fall asleep before midnight tonight. I have been trying not to use any sleep meds and have now been without night time sleep aids for over 2 weeks! Thats incredible for me! I am pretty happy about it....even though now I sleep light enough to wear the smell of poop down stairs behind closed doors can wake me up!
I am flabbergasted that this is the last few days of June already! Next month is going to be insane in how much I have to do and how fast it will likely go by. I think its pretty cool, and hardly believable, that on Thursday, me and Brian will be celebrating 8 years together....yes...EIGHT!!! Wow! Thats almost a decade! Very crazy and crazy fast. I guess thats a good sign though, when eight years seems to fly by...they say thats what time does when you are having fun...or popping out babies and living in financial stress 24/7...heehee. Yes, eight years...and to celebrate we decided to go for broke and take a trip (a second one for the year!) to Daytona in September while the kids are out on fall break. We have a nice place already picked out and today I guess I need to remember to call in the credit card number and make things official. I am super excited to see my grandparents and the ocean...the last time we were down as a family, Laci was only 16 months old! So I am stoked to see my kids response to the magnificent ocean and beach and piers! I think for the first time in my life I want to walk over the main street bridge too! So excited!!
But in the mean time, its the daily grind here and every day is a holiday....lol...right? Who's with me? Anyone? Ok well, lol, I guess every day is at least a gift...even if it is wrapped in 99* weather! Hoping to pick up my new glasses tomorrow....yep...yours truly is going to have to wear glasses. Not 24 hours a day...or even 12 for that matter, but for things like driving, and shopping, and watching movies and whatnot so I can see better. Turns out my eyesight was a lot worse than I thought...but that should all be fixed in the next 24-48 hours! Woopie doo! 
Anyhow hope anyone out there reading this is blessed today with happiness and laughter....two of the most simple, but sometimes hardest to obtain things in life. May today give you both....tomorrow you can go to hell though...lmao....I am kidding!!! Ok happy Tuesday!

Monday Monday

Father's day was yesterday....it feels like a flop. I gave Brian his main gift before we left because I was so excited with how great it turned out I didn't want to wait. That was his amazing 135 page photobook of us as a family but revolving around him of the first 8 years of our family. It was gorgeous though and I know he loved it, but that was his big gift...and I gave it to him early. Then everyone is out of town so we didn't have our yearly get together for the day, and then after making him a nice breakfast and giving him his other small gifts and welcome banner, I was struck with a horrific migraine that had me laid up in bed most of the day and late into the night. Brian ended up giving the kids a bath and getting them in bed while I laid down with a cold wet rag over my eyes feeling like I was going to vomit. I then slept like absolute crap last night but even though its is supposed to be "scorching hot" today, I let the kids choose a place to go and a day to go this week, and Christopher chose the Aquarium today and Laci wants Tellus tomorrow....okie dokie then...LOL....then I have to stop for groceries on the way home this affternoon and I am sure I will be wiped out come bedtime tonight...so maybe I will sleep better!


Not much else to report on at the moment, but maybe I will do a part 2 this evening...

OK, here we go!

Home from vacation! Had an amazing time. The cabin was absolutely gorgeous! The bigger cabin really helped having the two dogs and even more stuff since we were staying longer this year. As soon as we walked in an said our "wows" i jumped at brian and gave him a huge hug and kiss. It was just perfect! We unpacked and put the food up and got all organized and then I wasted no time in getting down to the dock and casting in the fishing line! Fishing had its ups and downs, it was deffinately a lot of work to try and fish with the 2 kids. They are not at the age to understand the patience or the volume needed to fish. When you added that to Clover howling and barking up a storm inside throwing a fit because he wasn't outside with us, it was almost a chaotic madhouse at first. But, soon we realized what worked for us and went with it. As expected, the kids were more interested in feeding the brim and crappies at the dock than doing any real fishing...but if I got a good one on the line, they wanted to reel them in, LOL, which was funny at times and almost irritating at others..but all in all the fishing was fun and while sitting there in the shade and sun mixture on that dock, line in the water and mountain breeze blowing against my face, I was truly relaxed and felt at peace with the world...if only for a moment.
One day (honestly I can't remember which one, lol) we went to drive up to Andrews and Bryson City because supposedly there was cool stuff there....yeah, there wasnt, but we drove and drove and found amazing things along the way. We stopped at one point in the Nananhala National Forest and watched people rafting down the river, the air was incredible and clean and sweet and unlike anything I have smelled before. Then we kept driving and finally found Bryson...and stopped for a late lunch...and the lady at Arbys welcomed us to the "middle of nowhere"....whoops! So we found out that 10 miles up more was Cherokee, NC which is a place Brian used to visit as a kid, so we went and it was so cool to see him so excited and thinking back fondly of his childhood memories for a change. We walked through the shops and let the kids buy some stuff. They chose a bunch of Indian stuff, some candy, and a skull bank. We walked wround for about 2.5 hours and then let them play in the fountain and pools for a minute, and then headed back to the cabin.
Another day we decided again to take a trip in the other direction. We headed out towards TN and drove up to Ocoee. And let me tell you, oh my GOSH! How amazing!!! Driving through the mountains of TN with huge walls of solid rock on one side and the Ocoee river on the other was amazing. The kids weren't as interested in that trip as me and Brian were, but thats ok. We had a great time and seen some amazing things. I drove up a mountain that was officially the highest point I had ever been that wasn't in an airplane and was left just speechless. It was beautiful! We got some great pics and then I tried my hand for a few minutes fishing in the Ocoee....not successful but it was new! :)
Brian was really excited to get to go to the range with all his guns. Christopher was his little side kick. They both had a blast getting to go through hundreds of rounds of ammo during a few trips to the range. I went one day and shot the SKS, the .22, and the 9mm...but I only really liked the .22, everything else is just too much gun for me to shoot in the heat....but I would like to go again in the fall.
It was really nice to get to see Momma on her first family vacation, and even cooler was Clover. He got out i the yard and was playing and running at speeds I didn't even know he could reach!! He sounded like a horse galloping along between the ponds chasing Brian and Momma. He wasn't into the swimming as I suspected, and absolutely lost his mind on the dock the one time i got into the paddle boat. Poor guy just isnt a swimmer. He also isn't into eating raw fish as I thought he may have been. I tried to give him a fish 2 times and both times you could see he wanted to eat/play with it, but was terribly grossed out by the whole thing! Ha!
Most the time we just hung out at the cabin though, fishing, playing, resting, watching movies (Laci insisted Cabin Fever) and spending time as a family. It was so relaxing. 
Ben, the baby rat, died while on the trip. I was very sad to see him not make it, however I know I tried and thats more than anyone else wanted to do that I called or looked up online. I knew it was a long shot to save him  anyhow but I was even a little surprised how sad his passing made me.
This was the first vacation I have taken in a long time that actually made me feel like I wanted to cry when it was coming to the end. I can't believe how fast the time went, but I am glad now to be home and anxious to see the rest of the year and all the amazing things we have coming to us as a family. We have more trips planned and so much more happening in the next few months. 
I got home yesterday and we organized everything and then I went to pick up a Father's day gift for Brian (I already gave him his big gift which was a photobook I made) and then picked up Laci's paperwork for Pre-k! Wow...where is time going? Sadly while I was gone, Chip decided to use almost everything in Laci's bedroom as a litter box and I have so much to clean in there still. Thats next on my agenda when I am finished here. I cannot understand this cat, I wish I knew a home he go to where he was happy since he clearly is not happy here. He is always doing the most awful things here....and this time cost me a lot of money in his tempter tantrums.
Today is a quiet day, Brian is currently sleeping upstairs with a bad headache and the dogs are chewing bones and the kids are playing and occasionally fighting as always. I am trying hard to stay on task here and get this written up so I can feel accomplished in finally starting the blog back up!
Well, lets hope I can stick with this now. Back on my diet today too....I have gained almost 5 pounds back in the last 2 weeks eating like a schmuck! I have got to buckle back down now and get anpther 15-20 pounds off by fall...thats my goal...and then I will be eblow 200 by a few pounds finally...then I will evaluate the next goal.
Happy weekend!
Robin

sick puppies, empty house, cold weather

Feeling blue, sure its the PMS, but my babies are all gone...almost 2 hours away at a vet being quarantined after coming down with Parvo and under observation. The weather is getting to me, I am sick of the cold, wet, cloudy, miserable weather. I am sad my babies are gone....I am behind on everything important, and I have gained back the 2 pounds I lost...so much for 7 pounds a month...I feel like a douche. Just not feeling chipper. Add that to my family sicknesses and sadness, clover making me crazy barking and yodelling 24 hours a day because momma is in heat and being exhausted from no sleep I am just in a funk. Come on blue skies, come on spring!!! I need that in my life right now! Its wet, gray, and cold right now....but weather man says that may change for the next few days! *fingers crossed* This afternoon I am cranking open both garage doors and throwing away and cleaning everything and then taking buckets of steaming hot bleach water to the walls, floors, everything I can reach! I have to get this parvo OUT of my house!!! I am bleaching the yard too since its safe, and I am bleaching all the blankets in my garage that have been used and throwing away the ones that are in the pens out there. No update today on the puppies yet, as of yesterday Mia and Carmella were vomiting and having diarrhea but Sophia was doing better and no one else was breaking yet...now I just pray that they all pull through and come home....soon!
Well, I guess I need to get up and actually try to be productive today...I need to stay off FB. It was pointed out to me that I said I would be off it and I am actually on it 3 times as much...and even though it was said in jest, its true...I HAVE to break this damned addiction! GRR!

Puppies barking, kids playing, hot rod tv...

That my current state of home at the moment. Laci is playing LaLaLoopsy, Christopher is playing (nonstop now) his Lego Ninjago? Something like that, Brian is watching Hot Rod TV, and I have puppies going bonkers in the garage...what puppies you ask? Oh well, on top of the existing 5 I now have a second litter of 8...yep...13 puppies. But this litter is new, but very healthy (I assume) and about 7 weeks old now and already had their first shots and wormer at Polk A/C before I got them on Friday. They are adorable and I have named them the Campanella Family (Sophia Lorenzo, Dollface Dixie, Paulie, Joey, Big Al "The Fluff", Mia the Moll, Angelina (Angel), And Carmella) They are my mafia litter! :) This does not interfere with my expected break because they are older, healthier, and beautiful. The other 5 are not able to go up for adoption until their hair grows back anyhow, so by the time they go up for adoption, the other will have already had a good 2 weeks of adoption time so it runs concurrent with each other.
Today is supposed to be my "free day"...its 9:35 and to be honest, I dont see that happening. I need to clean puppy poop, feed and water pups, and start on a long line of baths before we have a vet appointment in the morning with all 13 as well as 2 kids...that should be fun! LOL! I don't know what I would have done with free time anyhow....look in a bookstore at books I can't buy? Look at birthday themes for Laci for 2 months from now? Made ice sculptures? Yeah its probably for the best that I am sitting here typing on my blog right now.
This week we *almost* get back to normal, the kids are home on Monday for MLK, but then in school all week long after that. I will be back to working in the classroom on Thursday, and I will be cooking dinner everynight and able to get out of my house freely. (Thank God!) I have the big vet appt on Monday and I am sure my fab 5 have mange, they are almost hairless now and the baths didn't seem to do any good at all. I am praying they get some meds, and that they grow hair back fast! I am really wishing we could get some 55* weather so in the afternoon they could get some fresh air time, other than vet appointments this poor litter has never seen the elements. I also pray that I don't have mange...I have about 40 itchy spots all over and more come up every day...I may need some medicated wash myself!
Laci and I are going to crack back down on learning letters, we have done "A" so far and that is not acceptable. Last week was just a cabin fever slushy icy mess and I am really hoping thats it now for snow and Ice for the year. I would be ok with that. 
I am working on my calendar for the year and also trying to slowly get more organized, its hard getting started but if I keep going I will get better!
Well, its clear the pups must be hungry since the wont stop barking in a weird chorus out there so I better get my booty up and get my free day chores out of the way!

Another day off...another tooth gone!

Last night we went out to Target and IHOP as a family because I just couldn't handle being in the house anymore! The roads were not too bad, but the snow is crazy looking, by the time we got home after dark, the yards that didn't have kids looked like ice skating rinks, the snow has had a hard ice shell for days now, and its both pretty and eerie looking with that perfectly flawless smooth top, yet its white as the snow its covering. Brian says he wishes it happened when everyone still had their Christmas lights up because of how pretty it would be with the lights on them....he is a kid at heart, I know it!
While we were out, Christopher showed me how loose his second bottom tooth was and I knew there was a good chance we could get it out, so when we came home I wiggled it until it finally popped off. I love his face when he realizes that its gone! Ha! He put it under his pillow and we all got to bed, this morning he had 5.00 under his pillow instead. :)
Today the kids are again out of school, I have to give the puppies a bath, the 2 dogs a bath, the kids a bath, and then if there is any hot water left, I will surely need one too! After that, I am determined to get us OUT of this house again. I don't know where to go or what to do, and at this point, just walking around a mall would make me happy just to get out of this house!! Then he will surely have school tomorrow (I think today was precaution only really) and then he is off for another 3 day weekend since its MLK weekend, then in 4 weeks he has *another* week off of school for the official "winter break" before rolling into March, and hopefully spring! I am deffinately suffering from cabin fever, and maybe even a little weather related depression this winter already and while I have said a lot that I am *not* ready for summer....I *am* ready for spring, allergies and all! (and of course, spring means summer and summer means vacation!...so maybe ok I am ready for summer too, lol) It is bitter cold this morning at only 17* and poor Brian is out in it all day writing estimates. Worse, he is on an empty stomach. I tried to make him an egg sandwich this morning and some hot chocolate, but he doesn't eat a lot of breakfast so he declined my offer. Bleh! I had coffee, an egg, and 2 pieces of cinnamon toast...my belly is happy and full. Now to get 38 invites filled out and to the post office and 10 baths done and a plan formed for the afternoon! LOL! Well, there isnt much more than that to talk about today!
Have a happy Thursday world!