The above pic is from last week. The girls are taking a tumble class at the place where B takes cheer. Normally it would be separate classes but right
now on Thursdays has very few kids so the girls are in a class together. Ashlee LOVES the tumbling! As for B, she gets to work on those fun tumble skills she is continuing to learn in cheer class.
This past weekend we went to a banquet for B's cheer and it was great. B got herself another great trophy, great food, fun times. It was an awesome way to wrap up our first cheer year! We have found our nitch and we are here to stay!
I will have to get Miss A.M a little leotard for class, how cute would that be w/ her cute little tummy?!
Pics are coming from the banquet btw.......just need time!!
Geppetto and Griffin are getting along great! Geppetto wants to play but right now Griff is just not that interested. Both boys sleep a ton! They do come out and hang around for a bit and they certainly haven't been missing canned food time and treats. I'm not sure Geppetto is in to the treats, but loves the canned food. I'm gradually changing their dry food to a better quality, all natural kind. The canned food they get is Iams. I just realized from reading what I have typed that I am turning in to crazy cat lady. Oh well, it keeps me entertained. Let me keep going, so tonight both boys got a good brushing (Griff's first since being back) and their ears cleaned w/ special solution and their sleepies removed. Geppetto's requires special eye powder. I am now covered in cat hair, it is up in my nose but I get joy seeing my Griffy on my pillow across the room and Geppetto on the arm of the couch.
I keep forgetting where I left off in my childhood stories. I think mid 80s. So basically, in 83, after Kristyn was born (by the way, today is her 26th b-day- even baby sisters grow up!)and we continued to live a pretty good life. No one ever EVER beat us or verbally abused us. The damage was done between our two parents. It was sometimes like watching a train wreck. I always knew who was going down and I always knew what was going to happen next. There were some very ugly times. Overall, my mother struggled w/ a 'manic depression' diagnosis, alcoholism, and trying to find the balance between managing and abusing prescription drugs, it is a fine line you know. I loved her immensely during these trying times. I was a bit of a martyr. I was making good grades, didn't give her trouble, took care of her and my sister when daddy was working, and basically laid low. I didn't want to cause her any stress or discomfort. I started praying a prayer that I never stopped praying, right up until her death when I was 19, that she heal.......that was it.....that was my big,fat request. I may have not used those words at age 7, but pretty close 'make my mommy feel better' and by the time I was 17-19 'please god, why can't she just HEAL?' I tried to keep faith in the unseen but until right high school when I started to heal myself, god was so imaginery to me- I mean what kind of god lets a young teenager go through some of the things I have? I don't ask that anymore. I don't blame any god. I know it was just a life I had to live, to get me here.
By the late late 80s (sorry bad w/ years) we lost our nice home. I had had my own bedroom w/ french doors and a queen size water bed. We moved to the other side of the tracks, still in south Ft W but in a lower income area. I was angry and hurt. I had to share a room after 9 years of not having to w/ my little sis. We had twin beds, one dresser and one desk, and some shelves, everything else was sold or given away. Our new house was a 2 bedroom, much smaller place. My mom didn't have a dishwasher anymore and we were suddenly playing w/ the poor kids instead of the rich kids. We were never rich but now I know we were in fact poor. No one let on b/c mom and dad kept working, and relatives kept helping.
Well, it doesn't take a genius to come to the conclusion that a marriage could not survive mental illness, addiction, and now economic hardship. The fighting increased, got uglier, before I knew it, we were like any other poor family on the block. This would pain my parents to see me write this, but there is a lot of info I am withholding to protect them, b/c it is exactly what I would hope for my kids to do for me.
A year or so after this move, my parents divorce. I was 10. First dad moved out, then we moved out, he moved back in, we moved to Hurst, in w/ the first of many boyfriends my mother had. If there is one thing I don't think i could do to my girls - it is expose them over and over to different men. Children are freakishly loyal to their parents. I think especially girls to their dads, especially at my age, 10! I mean, just try and be a daddy -- was not happening. I was a brick wall. I was not crumbling w/o a fight. Thus, begins the beginning of the pre-teen years when I began fighting terribly w/ my mother. This is also about the time she got sober for the 1st time. This was good, great even......but i should have known how this story would go......
