Scoreboard

After I had my 2nd child I was on birth control pills. I was nursing my baby still and running behind an almost 3 year old.

the jealousy was a little frustrating at first. I was nursing baby and the toddler felt neglected. She felt that the most optimum time to have a mad rush of "I need to go to the bathroom" was when I would sit down to start nursing the baby. The first couple of times I dropped everything and ran her to the bathroom. I kinda got tired of this routine and tried taking her to the bathroom before I nursed, but somehow she always still needed to go to the bathroom. I told her she could wait till I was done since I knew she had just gone. She started to say she needed to go potty and then pee her pants right in front of me. Luckily we had tile floor so clean up was easy.

One time I had just settled in nursing the baby and the toddler came running into the room. "Potty" she yelled and then spread her legs and peed right in front of me. This was the last straw. Next time I went to nurse the baby I took the toddler to the bathroom, I sat her on the toilet and then I sat on the counter and nursed the baby. The toddler I cried, "I need to go potty" luckily she was already on the toilet. This new routine went on for about 3 days. She got tired of it … SCORE: mom 1 toddler 365… finally I had a win.

For our anniversary my friend offered to take the kids so I could surprise him. He went to school till about noon so I expected him home somewhere near 1 or maybe a little after if he was buying me a present. So I dropped off the kids around 11 and I went shopping to buy some lingerie so that I could surprise him appropriately. I got home and changed and then took my clothes and led them to the bedroom. I had music on.. my favorite Joe. I then sat on the bed and waited… I waited…. and waited…. and waited. I finally took a nap.

I woke up when he walked in the house. It was 4 pm in the afternoon. He came upstairs and had brought home food. Apparently for my present he went on the search for mexican food for me. He knew that I missed carne asada so he had gone on a mission to find authentic mexican food. He knew that I did not like the imitation stuff. He had asked around and finally found one halfway between pensacola and mobile alabama.

I was not happy. And what made me more unhappy was that he didn't understand why I was not happy. We still talk about that night and I still think he doesn't understand.

Thanksgiving

It would be my first thanksgiving doing everything alone. It would only be our family my husband, the baby that was breastfed only, and the daughter who going through a phase of not eating meat. I decided that instead of a turkey I would do a chicken for basically he and I. I made  stuffing, mashed potatoes and an apple pie. Somehow though it didn't feel like anything other than another day off. We were used to a big family dinner where people ate until stuffed.

It was a lonely Thanksgiving. We ate and then put the girls to bed. Like I said it didn't feel any different

Mecca

Being out on the middle of nowhere had some advantages. If we drove a ½ hour west we entered Mobile Alabama. In Mobile there was this great outlet mall. There were so many stores my husband, who loved to shop, felt he had found his Mecca. It was mostly designer stores and it was a true designer outlet mall where we saw some of our jackets that we had bought about 1 year ago.

I fell in love with the Timberland store. It was a shoe store that was buy one get one free on equal or lesser price. I bought a pair of tennis shoes and a pair a hiking shoes. when I say hiking shoes I do not mean the hiking shoes that was in style to hike on the city streets. These were made ruggedly with great traction. I loved htem. The Tennis shoes were the most comfortable shoes I had ever worn . (remember these shoes, I will talk about them in a later post)

We came home from our shopping trip with our great finds. These finds were so great that 13 years later, I still have those hiking boots

Do not cross the barricades

When we lived in San Diego his job was in the middle of an air field. You had to cross the taxiway in order to get to his building. One day my friend had come down to see me and we decided to go to his job just to see what was going on. I had vaguely heard that the president was going to be Southern California that day.

When we got to the base there were a couple of barricades up but not too unusual. She was driving and I was giving her directions. I told her to turn right but there were some barricades up. We decided to drive down t see if there was another entrance we could go through. We didn't find anything so we went back to the street I had originally told her to turn on. It led to the taxiway so it was the only way I knew how to get to his work. We went around the barricades and we saw a huge airplane parked on the taxiway. The we looked up and there were armed security with guns pointed. One came up to the window and asked what our purpose was …. umm …. I explained how I wanted to pick  my husband up from work.

Then we saw the writing on the side of the plane… United States of America…. we were looking at Air Force One. We apologized and quickly turned around.

It was a dark and dreary night

Pensacola, Florida is a small town in the south. Living there was a small adventure. We actually lived outside the city limits so going anywhere was a major trip. There were no buses that ran near our neighborhood. As a matter of fact there were no neighborhoods near our neighborhood.To get to the nearest grocery store it was a 20 min drive. And the drive was basically down one street with no street lights or traffic lights.

One night i needed to go to the grocery store. I left the baby and toddler with the husband. It was a dark and rainy night… something perfect for a horror film…. Let's set the scene. Woman alone at night driving on a dark and lonely road. Lightening, rain,  no cell phone, no houses near by. As I was driving all of a sudden I lost acceleration and power. I sat there in the car and tried cranking the car again. nothing.

So i walked in the rain on a lonely street. I was too far away from home to walk back so I walked forward. I finally saw some houses after about 20 minutes. I  felt like this this was the most important decision in mylife. What house do I choose. IF I choose wrong it might be the axe murderer's house. I knocked on a door a young couple answered the door. I asked if I could use the phone. They had pity on me. I called my husband and explained what happened. He said he would  figure it out. The couple overheard my plight and offered to take me home.

The next day my husband walked to where the car was. It started and he took it to a mechanic. It was the alternator.

Keep your children safe

One day I woke up to find a notice on my door. THe notice stated that the previous night alligator tracks had been found behind the houses that were across the street. The houses across the street had a stream/ swamp area that behind their homes. apparently a dog had been spooked the previous night and when the owner went out to check on the dog he noticed the gator tracks.

The notice warned guests about small animals being a treat for gators. And then proceeded say that at the speed that gators run, they could run after our children and eat them. Very reassuring. Poor toddler she was confined to indoors which was fine by me because it was hot and muggy outside.

For a whole week it was rare to see children outside playing, then I guess everyone got tired of being cautious and let the children run amok like usual. I guess we were ok with the incident as long as the gator stayed across the street. Continuing adventures of living in the pan handle.