Starting fresh

Hey blogging world! We're back!!!! We tried the Shutterfly website thingy and it was horrible. Great for pictures...not so great for trying to "blog". Half of the time it wouldn't let me log in. And if I did get logged in, it wouldn't let me post or I'd have problems loading pictures. Forget it!

I'm going to master this thing yet. :)

I wish I was as creative as my aunts and cousins. I'd have a great looking page with loads of pictures. Until then...it's going to be pretty plain!

We're getting our act together to get ready for Scott's homecoming!! It's hard to believe he's actually going to be HOME for almost 2 weeks!!! It will be the last trip home for awhile. He MAY get a leave at Christmas time, but until then and for a long time after, he won't have that luxury.
The kids are so excited! They absolutely adore him...and he adores them.

One of the nights before Scott left for Basic, I was at mom and dad's for dinner with him. They had to leave for something, so Scott and I were doing the dishes together. We started talking about when we were kids...remembering some of the stupid things we did (he dared me to roller skate down a small slide once...I dared him to lick the entire length of a driveway...we both took the dares). We had some good laughs. One of the things we discussed were the horrible fights we'd have. I was SO mean to him. I would get so mad at him for breathing in my space. In the car, we had an invisible line...he didn't cross into my space, I didn't cross into his. But he would be his hand right next to that imaginary line and I would get SO mad. I'd smack his hand the second his finger would cross over. 10 minutes later, we'd be playing thumbwars. Haha!! We were remembering our family vacations. Every summer we looked forward to packing up and leaving for vacation. We truly did have a GREAT childhood! I have so many good memories of being kids, riding bikes all summer, playing with our friends all up and down our street, playing in "the weeds" (our handmade forest), catching fireflies and making rings out of their lights (mom's idea!), our massive collection of comic books, spending time on grandma and grandpa's farm, being scared to death of their stupid peacocks, swimming in the pond on our farm, riding the four-wheeler 'til all hours of the night, burning pastures, delivering calves, herding cattle, 4-H, my first car and our trips to Colorado, rubberband wars, sledding down the dam at the El Dorado Lake, bringing the barn cats in the house while mom and dad were gone (they got in a huge fight...it was hilarious!), Silver Dollar City, Disneyland, Sea World, spending two weeks in Wyoming with our cousins visiting Yellowstone/horse back riding into the mountains, eating all the marachino cherries and drinking all of Uncle Glenn's Diet Pepsi and trying to explain to him that we had noooo idea what happened to either of them (it didn't go over well, but we had a great laugh over his reaction)...we'd be here all day if I kept going.
While I'm thinking of it....one memory that just made me laugh (it may not be funny to you if you didn't know Uncle Glenn) but mom and dad were gone to work, so Scott and I knew that when Uncle Glenn got home, he'd think everyone was gone if we weren't in the living room. So we went and hid behind all his things in the closet and waited......he walked in the door and did the usual "HELLO?!?!?"...we stayed quiet....he went to the bathroom...went to the kitchen and poured a Dt. Pepsi...perfect! Just like usual...So we continued to wait trying to hold back the giggles. We heard him in the office, so we thought it was the perfect time sneak out. We were beat red trying to hold back the laughter. He listened to his messages...got up and was headed back to the kitchen when we pounced. He hooped and hollered and looked absolutely petrified. He grabbed the nearest paper, rolled it up and chased us down the hall yelling, "You cotton-pickin' brats!!!!" The three of us laughed SO hard...he was a good sport about it and promised he'd get us back. Right before bed he told me, "You better sleep with one I open, honey." I seriously couldn't sleep that night! Nothing ever happened, but he knew the mind games would get the better of us. He was right! We called a truce!

I want my kids to have the same good memories with their siblings as I did as a child. When they fight and I'm ready to lock them in a room and let them have at it, I remember our horrible fights and how quickly we made up. It will pass!!!

We were telling them stories about how we fought. They just can't imagine! :) It's really pretty funny.

Well, this is a good start to a fresh blog!

Now if I can just get the rest of the family to start blogging......... ;)