A must read Christmas story!

I have followed Katherine's blog for over a year now and adore her 3 beautiful boys, and her sense of humor.  Today she shared a beautiful story of a true event that her father experienced that I just have to pass on, so please go read A Christmas Story.

4 things

4 shows I watch:
1. Grey’s Anatomy
2. Biggest Loser
3. Extreme Home Makeover
4. Mercy (still working my way through the only season)

4 things I am passionate about:
1. Family
2. Reading
3. Music
4. Nursing

4 phrases I say a lot:
1. Thank you and You’re welcome (Jax is saying TY a lot so we try to say YW back as well as TY when he deserves one)
2. Great (both happily and sarcastically)
3. Pee and Pooy (potty training means lots of potty talk)
4. Well Sh*t


4 things I have learned from the past:
1. No regrets, even bad decisions can be lessons and make me who I am today
2. Forgive even if you can’t forget
3. Marry your best friend or it will never work
4. Let go and love with all your heart

4 places I would like to go:
1. Ireland
2. Scotland
3. Australia
4. Key West

4 things I did yesterday:
1. Spent too much time in the bathroom
2. Called in sick to work (See #1)
3. Snuggled lots with Jax
4. Watched some more Boston Med

4 things I am looking forward to:
1. Jax being 100% potty trained
2. Having Corbin all grown up so I can know how independent she’ll be rather then stuck waiting, hoping, and worrying about it
3. SUMMER!!!! I am sick of cold and snow already
4. Eventually buying our own home

4 things I love about winter:
1. Can I think of one thing? Ummm Christmas is usually ok
2. Seeing family at Thanksgiving (Thanksgiving is close enough to winter right?)
3. The start of a fresh new year
4. January is both my boys’ birthdays

4 things on my wish list:
1. Our own house
2. A better vehicle
3. A job I truly love
4. A warmer climate

Monday Minute and More Love Monday

Join the fun with Cristy for Monday Minute!

(1) Who is your favorite actor? Curently I love Gerard Butler. I am really enjoing his movies lately and the accent + his body don’t hurt.

(2) Do you collect anything? Americana décor - I became obsessed with it in my teens in part to being born in the year of the bi-centinial

(3) What's the biggest turn off in someone of the opposite sex? Too cocky and or controlling. You are not better then me and you are not my boss.

(4) If you HAD to change your first name, what would you change it to and why? I would love to not have a name that was so popular during my generation but haven’t really thought much about what name I would prefer. Maybe Miranda, close but not as over used.

(5) What virtue is better: forgiveness or justice? I’d have to say for my own mental health I have learned it is important for me to forgive injustices toward myself in order to move on past the hurt and anger.

Then head on over and share the love with Katie!

Five Foto Friday

I realized I really need to take more pictures, and not just of the kids, but of me, TJ, and other things that might catch my eye.  So I decided I should start doing a weekly photo post to encourage me to use my camera more.  So here is the first installment of my Five Foto Friday.  These were all taken in the last two weeks.

I love this grin, just wish he wasn't running out of the shot.

Jax took this one of me with some mommy help.

Helping Dad vacuum.

Riding the carousel at the mall with Dad.

And one of the few pictures I have of Corbin since she got her glasses.

Help a Mom, Win a blog design!

Visit Ashley...plus3 for a very special giveaway.  And join in to help and show some love to Eschelle from Mumfection.

life story part 4

And an update or part 4 of my story.



Shortly after that LJ entry Corbin and I headed down to San Antonio, TX where we started out staying with my grandparents. They were able to loan me a car till I was able to buy it from them and give us a place to stay while I got on my feet. When I left TJ and I had planned that once I was settled he would join me. In April 2005 he did just that.



That summer David got out of prison, again, and was living with his grandmother. We started talking and making plans to file for a non-contested divorce. In early September after not being able to reach David for awhile regarding sending him the paperwork, I tried calling his grandmother. When she returned my call she told me David had been shot and was on life support in SLU hospital’s ICU. She had tried to find my number but his phone had gone missing the night he was shot. After 6 months of ups and downs, of being on and off life support David passed away on Feb 29th 2006 at 30 years old.



On May 9th 2006 TJ and I were married while on a camping trip with friends and Corbin. That summer we joined those same friends in Pittsburg, PA and lived there until June of 2007 when we returned once more to Marshall, MO. And in June of 2008 we found out we were pregnant after two years of TTC. I first started this blog while I was pregnant and you can find Jax’s birth story right here and pregnancy reports in my archives.

Life story part 3

Now for part three:

On May 29th 2001 my daughter Corbin Jayne H. was born. Doug convinced me we should try to work things out for Corbin's sake so when I got my own apartment he moved in with me. Those the months were hell for me and all I could think about was TJ. When he came home on leave that September it just made things worse. I wanted so badly to be with him and the fighting with Doug got worse. In October I kicked him out and started talking more with TJ.

Then in spring of 2002 I decided to try to go to nursing school. I was so nervous about getting in. TJ came home on another leave and having him around helped distract me while I waited to find out if I had made it or not. Just before he left I got the news that I had been accepted. Knowing that TJ would be out of the Navy about the time I graduated nursing school, before he left we agreed to give our relationship a real try when he got home for good.

It was a tough year and I felt so lonely with no one to lean on when I got discouraged. I missed TJ so much.

Then in June 2003 less then 2 months before graduation TJ walked into Amanda's apartment. I was so excited I had waited to see him again for over a year, then he took me outside and told me there was someone else and he couldn't see me. I was so shocked I spent the first few days walking around in a daze. After waiting for 13 months to be with him, after 13 months of dreaming about our life together it wasn't going to happen.

I spent the next 6 months alone and angry. I didn't even want to try to find someone else. I just wanted what I had with TJ back.

In November I got the first news of David I had heard in 5 years. Still legally married to him I pursued this clue to his whereabouts hoping to finally get my divorce. David had other ideas. He convinced me that he had changed, that he had grown a lot and was a different person, he begged me to give him another chance. I refused for awhile but he wouldn't take no for an answer and he moved in with me.

In the 6 months we were together things where ok. We moved around a lot and ended up back in NC, but we didn't fight all the time and he never lost his temper. Then I got a job and he started stealing from my employer. When people started getting suspicious he wanted me to take the heat because with my clean record I would get just a slap on the wrist and he would go back to prison. I told him there was no way I would do that and turned him in.

Then I went back to St. Charles, Missouri, to live with an aunt, unemployed and broke, with little hope for the future till I can get a car. But TJ and I found each other again, we both free from our crazy exs and hoping to build something.

And this is where I ended this in 2004, so next up is my update on the next 6 years.