Living in a four month cycle

I go through four different lifestyles in every four month period of time.

Source

Single
Single Mother
Married, with Children
Married, "empty nesters"

When my ex-husband and I divorced, our custody agreement was that our children, Felicity now 12, and Gregory now 9 with autism, would spend a week with Mom and a week with Dad in rotation. Sometimes, the children get off the exact schedule, but then we work to get back on it.

Since that time, David and I married last August.

David is a civilian contractor in Afghanistan and only gets home on R&R every 75-90 days or so, for just a short period of time.

I don't work outside the home because when David is home on R&R, we like to have the freedom to do the things we want to do such as travel. PLUS Gregory is kind of a sickly guy, and I need to be available whenever he has to miss school. This past year has been tough with Felicity, too....strep has been awful, even AFTER having her tonsils removed last fall.

I love, love, love my children so much, BUT I do admit that I enjoy the time alone when they are with their Dad and I can sleep late, don't have to worry about fixing meals on a schedule, etc.

During the time that the children are home with me, and David is home on R&R, we travel occasionally, depending on the time of year and school, the rest of these times we are home as a family.

When David is home while the children are at their Dad's house, David and I are "free birds".

So you see, my life is not any type of the typical realm.

I am not complaining, but I do have such a difficult time figuring my daily life out sometimes.

I have been trying for weeks to figure out how to get back into blogging with this out-of-the-normal lifestyle. I'm going to give it a whirl, though. I may end up taking it more of a journal route, but hey, it's my blog, right? I'm just going to see how it plays out.

I've blogged off and on, but mostly on, since 2008. I miss it when I just drop it....and I miss reading everyone else's blogs.....just need to get myself disciplined again and get rolling.

May in a nutshell

I posted about the beginnings of my garden on April 30, then I looked up and it was mid-May, then May was gone. Oh how I have missed blogging. I am going to share with you in photos a re-cap of how May went for our family. You will realize, then, why I missed posting.

My birthday is May 1. I turned 46 this year. I don't feel it and if you ask most folks, they will tell you I don't act like I am 46 years old.

Vintage Postcard postmarked Jan 1910 and its mine :-)

David got me a Kindle Fire for my birthday and I just love it!  THEN a couple of days later he surprised me and was able to take his R&R two days ahead of schedule, so he arrived on the 6th instead of the 8th. While he was in route coming home from overseas (he is a civilian contractor over there), I used the information I got when I watched "Homestead Blessings: The Art of Making Candles" to make beeswax tapers. The night I was working on these, I was continually texting with David while he was in a holding pattern waiting to get on his flight home.

We traded in my 2009 Dodge Caravan and David's 2004 Avalanche in on a new truck! It is a 2012 Ford F150 Crew Cab. The new models have so much space in the back seat, it would compare in side to a small car.

This gorgeous machine drives amazingly & rides like a car!

While the kids were spending some days with their father, David decided we would take a road trip and head to the casino in Clinton, OK. It's only 2.5 hours away and was nice to spend the time together. On the way back, we stopped in. Shamrock, TX and saw the vintage gas station that was depicted in the movie "Cars".

David being his typical silly self.

"Look at that price! $.38 per gallon!"

Then we headed on down I-40 back toward Amarillo and stopped in Groom, Texas to see the GIANT cross.

The next adventure was to Palo Duro Canyon. It is less than a half-hour from our house.

Even though I have been several times....the canyon is still gorgeous to me!

Whew and I am only to the 13th!

We have been trying for the past couple of months to decide what to do about where to live. I currently have 1.17 acres with a 1981 very small manufactured home on it. David and I have gone through so many scenarios about what we want. This piece of land keeps calling us thought, to stay right here. So, we ordered a new manufactured home! OUR NEW HOME! Together. It is 320sf larger than the one the kids and I live in now. NOW this little homestead is OURS. We just found out yesterday that the home is built and will be in Amarillo sometime this coming week.

 

Ours is hunter green on the top and beige on the bottom.

We went with a single-wide because we don't want to put too large/pricey a home here and price it out of the area when one day we decide to sell the place.

The next thing I have to tell you is not easy to talk about. Many of you that have been reading my blog back to my old one, are familiar with Roosevelt, our Serama rooster. He hatched in my hand on January 2, 2010 and played a vital role in Gregory learning to talk. One afternoon, Felicity went out to the barn and found him dead. We don't know what happened. But I am thankful that David was here. The kids and I were in tears for quite a while. Losing Roosevelt was a huge loss for the kids and I.

Rest in peace our special little man.

Next, we headed to David and I's hometown, Leesville, Louisiana. I am the youngest of eight kids and we have not all been together in one place since 1983, when we buried our father. This weekend...we were all together! I am not sharing photos, because I don't know how they would feel about it.

Margo our Poodle, Petunia our Chihuahua

Bailey, our Maltese mix

Yep, all FOUR of our dogs went on the trip with us. (Ariel is in a later photo) They all did amazingly well and enjoyed the travel and meeting all of the new people.

I started and finished my first ever knitted project while we were on the road!

My daughter, son-in-law and first born grandchild, Madeline.

On Saturday of that weekend, we all headed out to Toledo Bend Lake for a day of fun in the woods (and on the water).

Toledo Bend Lake

Later that week, David and I enjoyed sitting out by the pool at our hotel and watched the kids swim.

Favorite things to read for me while watching the kids.

David was "pondering"...I don't remember what, though.

This was really the first time to swim in a big pool for Gregory, to the best of my memory. He loved it! It took him a few minutes at first, but then he realized his floaties wouldn't let him go under water.

Felicity loves to swim. She is now 11 and as tall as me! She is such a wonderful big sister to Gregory, too.


Oh how I miss the green of Louisiana! I love the State flower, Magnolia.

Then before we were ready, it was time for David to fly back overseas and the kids and I to come back to Amarillo.

We stopped in Canton, TX at a little place called Dairy Palace for lunch and Gregory actually ate BEANS AND RICE!!! Of course, I mashed it all up together, but he ate it! This is MAJOR for him! He still has such problems with food textures.

At the end of our first day on the road headed back to Amarillo, we stayed in Dallas. I took the kids to Bass Pro Shop because I thought they would think it was pretty neat. We were in that store for 2 hours! Felicity really enjoyed it...Gregory not so much.

We were all exhausted at the end of the day. Even Ariel our 3 month old puppy.

I ended the month of May with 15 fewer chickens due to a dog that got into the yard while we were gone. BUT on a better note...my first harvest of the year. HERBS!

 

Basil, Chamomille, Oregano and Cilantro.

Hope you enjoyed your little tour through our month of May. I will be back to blogging now and am so glad!

In training

Gregory has never asked for a pet. We have had pets Gregory's entire life and even when we go to pet adoptions, etc., he never really pays attention to them nor asks to bring any home. For new readers that do not know, Gregory is 8 and was diagnosed with Autism at the age of 25 months old.

Up until today, we had three dogs, after having to evict Cody (story earlier in blog). Bailey is a terrier/Maltese mix and definitely Felicity is her girl. Sure, we are all great, but Felicity is her girl. Bailey is 4 and we have owned her since she was a little puppy.  Petunia is a chihuahua (and SO chihuahua), she is also 4 and we have had her too, since a puppy. Petunia likes Gregory and is patient with him, but is really a family dog, but I am "Momma" to her.  Margo is my poodle that we rescued 6 years ago. She is around 10 or so years old. She is MY dog, no other way. She is patient with the kids, though, but she definitely is "Momma's girl". Margo and Petunia have a mother/daughter type relationship and Bailey rules the roost around here.

Our neighbors have a litter of Heinz 57 puppies. Felicity has brought this cute little girl one home before to show me, and yes, she is cute, but I said no more dogs. Then yesterday, Felicity brought the puppy to show me again. Gregory saw her this time and said he wanted "Oreo to live with us". He has never said that before about a pet! He loves the chickens, but never wanted us to add another dog to the family.

Gregory helps out with feeding the dogs and letting them out of their crates in the morning, then outside most of the time after letting them out of their crates. Lately, he has been trying to get Bailey or Petunia to sleep with him in his bed, or even just sit with him on the couch sometimes and they just usually get down. So after he asked to keep Oreo yesterday, I got to thinking that maybe he needs a companion of his own. So....

Meet Gregory's "service dog in training".... "Oreo".

Oreo is 6 weeks old. She is a total Heinz 57 from what we can get from the owners of the Momma next door. Some Pit-Bull, likely some Heeler and a lot of who knows what. Her paws are tiny, so I am hoping she stays somewhat on the smaller size, but he will love her no matter what.

We hope to be able to eventually get her certified as a service animal for him, but have not looked into the process yet. We will train her and teach her that she is Gregory's dog. We will teach him how to feed her (correctly) and play with her, walk her, let her out to potty and everything involved with having a dog. I will put together a chart to teach him, but I am aware I will do most of the house-breaking initially and that is fine with me. If he is happy, we are all happy.

We made the "puppy" trip to Petsmart today. Food, toys, bowl, collar, crate....whew! Free puppies definitely ARE NOT free. Tomorrow it's to the vet for her first shots and check up.  Bailey, Petunia and Margo are doing great with her so far!

Welcome to our family, Oreo!

Celebrating Autumn

I just happened to have my camera with me last week when the kids were playing in the leaves at Mike's office.

Couldn't have planned and staged things any better than these impromptu shots.

They had a great time.

My first born turns 21

She went and did it! Katie turned 21 today. I just can't believe it. Here's a photo of her a few weeks before her birthday.

Here's the afghan I made for Katie's birthday gift. I also purchased a couple of things for her, but this I made myself so she'd have something special for her 21st.

She loves camouflage and her favorite color is pink. She really loves it!

Two hospital stays and exhaustion

Typical of Gregory, when he gets sick with anything (even a cold), he stops eating and drinking. Dehydration is next, then off to the hospital for a few days of fluids and meds for whatever caused him to stop eating and drinking.

Last weekend, he started downhill. Sunday we were at the Doctor's office at 2pm. Ear infection and cold virus. She sent us home with antibiotics for the ear and told us to come back for follow-up on Monday at 10am to see if he had any improvement.

Monday at 10am, he was extremely dehydrated and off we went to the hospital. Fluids, bolists, meds...and he started drinking again on Tuesday. We were sent home on Wed.

By Thursday morning, Gregory wasn't drinking anything again...back to the Doctor's office and straight back into the hospital.

We got home tonight and I'm exhausted. We were home less than 24 hours between hospital stays.

This is a typical sceanario for Gregory, though, through the fall straight through to spring. We were just about a month early this year. lol

I'm exhausted...gotta love vitals every couple of hours through the entire night.

I've got a few posts planned for this week. Just need a good nights rest and clean up the house first.

Hank and Katie

When we got the Buff Orpington chicks (full story to come), I had no intentions of keeping a Buff Orpington rooster. I planned on only keeping the hens out of the 5 we got, for yummy fresh eggs.

Well this handsome guy, we call him Hank, has totally won all our hearts. He is the sweetest thing since sweet cream :-)

He's about 8 weeks in the above photo. It was taken on Sunday.

Katie (my grown daughter) is living with us for now. She's quite smitten with Hank (and all the chickens, for that matter). She, Felicity and I are partners in crime with planning for our new chickens, turkeys and guineas.

As I have read and heard, Buff Orpingtons are absolutely the most docile, friendly and loving chickens! We love them!

Felicity's photo shoot

Felicity decided it was time to do a photo shoot with her, since Gregory has already had his "moment in the spotlight". These were actually taken through the course of three or four days.

So, without further adue, here's our girl!

Felicity absolutely adores tomatoes!!! She asked if the tomato on the vine was ready to be picked. I told her yes, she can pick it. Little did I know that my saying she could pick it meant she could eat it, too!!! ;-)

She loves the chickens! We got five Buff Orpington chicks a week and a half ago. I'll post separately about them.

Gregory's photo shoot

Due to Gregory's autism, he's always been a little "puzzled" by the camera. He lets us take photos, and in the last several months, understands us when we tell him to "smile". He loves to look at photos on the computer screen, too.

Monday night we were outside in the backyard and Mike had the camera. Gregory was on the porch with Mike and Mike wanted to take a picture of him. Well, Gregory "kicked in" and turned it into a full out photo shoot! He hammed it up just as a non-special needs kiddo would.

Isn't he absolutely adorable? Blonde hair, blue eyes. What a handsome little guy!

Gregory is doing so well with therapy!! Today, during feeding therapy, he said "lick"!!! That's a word they use extensively in feeding therapy.

He's also starting to touch food items to his mouth, though won't actually bite them. But hey, anything is one step closer to him eating solid food and feeding himself, right?

Don't you just love his fashionable shoes??? :-)