mid-break

Girls are with their Dad and I've done pretty well, all things considered. Tonight is hard though. Its Thursday, the night we all watch wipeout and not only are the girls gone, but Ryan is working nights. At least I have Axel to keep me company. We had a fun "date" last night, we went to the mall, then grabbed some Panda Express and Bahama Bucks on the way home. Yummy food makes me happy! :-)

I'm finished working this week, have a break form school, tomorrow we head to DFW to celebrate. Its a new tradition...birthday shopping in DFW instead of Houston or CS. Of course...this time of year causes me to reflect. As much as I love New years, I realized this year, I need to find a new holiday as I come to a screeching halt every February. There are too many memories and I can't help but reminisce over happy memories.

Along with everything else that is going on, I need to document some of those memories for the girls. So, fair warning....certain people may not want to read.

For Abigail and Amelia~
I met your Daddy in July of 2000. I had an interview at the vet clinic where he worked. It was a crazy day as I almost forgot about the interview entirely! But I got the job and he used to walk by and stick his tongue out at me. He started coming to see the girls (Laura and Katelyn) and give them "airplane rides" then he would play play dough with us in the kitchen and we made small talk. He was looking for a new place to live since Chunky Monkey was graduating and moving. We joked about me moving in and all I had to do was his laundry. Then one night (Christmas Eve) he stopped by the Holiday Inn. We ended up talking for 2 hours. I laughed when he said he had to go, that he had left his truck running. :-) Silly boy! It became a regular thing. He would come up and talk to me for hours. He endured the food at the cutting horse and drank long island ice teas. Terry Jones was a trooper who worked security and he told me that your Daddy was sweet on me and I laughed. I should mention that at this time I was engaged to another boy. A boy who was not nice and who made bad choices. In talking to your Daddy, I realized that no matter who badly I wanted to prove my independence, I needed to NOT make my own bad choice. I loved those nights and those talks and I realized that I needed to break up with the other boy. But I was stubborn and I didn't want Mimi and Josanna to be right. At one point, your Daddy called Alexander and Josanna answered the phone...she told him not to give up and she told me to "give the vet boy a chance". That week, I followed my heart and told the other boy I wouldn't marry him, in a manner of speaking. ;-) A few weeks later, after work I was driving around Stephenville with Jahna and her friend Kim, told me to just go kiss him. So we drove over to his house and I knocked on the door. I had no intention of kissing him mind you...But he kissed me. ;-)
Our first official date was January 28th, Super Bowl Sunday. I knew he thought I was special because there was not mention of football at all. We drove to Ft. Worth and ate fried pickles at Razzoou's, then we went to the Mall. It was a great date despite the gloomy weather. Your Dad said my driving made him sick, so he drove my tiny blue car home, lol. We were going to go see a movie, Chocolate and it was really dumb and we laughed about it. Then we went to Wal-mart and he bought a Tim McGraw CD. 3 days later, Mur died. I was at work, talking to your Dad on the phone when I got the call. He offered to go with me, but a friend had just stopped by so I went with Chelsea and then she took me to his house. The funeral was Saturday. If I had any doubts that your Daddy was interested, they stopped there. He took off work so that he could go with me to Fort Worth for the funeral. He got his own hotel room and he gave me space to cry, and that weekend he promised he would never hurt me. He got an interview in CS for vet school on the 13th and on his way home he stopped in Waco and bought me a card and I white bear. Mur had bought all of her granddaughters white bears and told us that when someone loves you they buy you a white bear. I took it as a sign from her that she approved. I'll never forget how silly he was in the hall at the clinic when he got the call. :-) From that weekend on, we spent as much time together as possible. He took me to meet "the silver fox" AKA, Grandma in March. Then in April we went to Lake Whitney, dinner at Mary's in Strawn and camping in Iredelle and boy, that was a CrAzY night. It rained so hard! Your Daddy thought I was so silly jumping out of trees and bringing face wipes and a toothbrush to go camping! May was Dinosaur Valley and Lake Proctor and we talked about getting married after vet school. June we found out I was pregnant and decided to plan a wedding. We were married in July, one year after we met. It was a very scary and exciting time. I was married to the best friend I had ever had.

I'll write more later...but tonight this is all my heart can handle.