Hair, crawling, and birthday celebrations

Saturday morning is always household chores for me, but this Saturday was my last free Saturday for the next 16 weeks as my college classes start on Monday. So I did laundry and dishes but the I took a break from that to go get my hair done.

After getting my hair time I went and spent a little time crawling around in the woods with my son and hubby. Rick was driving the Sammy (as we call it) and I guess it got a little tired and laid down on it's side for a few. I was very grateful that my son had the sense to sit that rode out. We got it back on all 4 tires pretty quick.

Then it was on to the birthday celebrations. My family and I have always had a dinner for my moms an my birthday. We had decided to go to the rowdy beaver in eureka springs but they were so packed so we then went to the rockin pig saloon. Had a good rib dinner and great company with a few laughs.

Chapter 28

I am on the brink of the last few paragraphs of chapter 28 of my life. In the past 28 years I have done many things, not too many of them exciting others have been miracles. I like to the think I've come along just fine. Then I have days like today where I just want to ask myself, "Why even try?"

Today has been one of those trying days when you have the deck stacked against you and you feel like everyone is just betting against you. The strange thing about it is, there is no particular reason why I feel this way. I'm just find of in a "funk." And I don't like it. So surprise world I'm not always happy and smiling, there are days when I just want to throw the deck up in the air and see where everything lands.

It was an uphill battle today, but thank goodness we are on the downhill slide of the day.

BABY UPDATE: She is still doing wonderful! She is still sticking to me like glue.

Cade was really cute today. Called the HOGS at Daycare today and it was so cute. When we got home today it was good warm day so we played outside for a while and he acts just like Rick, already. He wanted to ride his four-wheeler and this is what I got.

Christena went home with granny to stay the night. So I will see her tomorrow night for the family dinner celebrating mom's and my birthday. She is such a great kid.... I hope that she know how much I love her.

I am an EXTREME kind of person!!!

 Yeah that's right..... I do some pretty extreme kind of stuff. I fight extreme, I hate extreme, I love extreme, I live to the EXTREME!!!

I'm a mommy, not just a mother, mom, or momma, but a mommy. I will fight to the death, climb the highest mountain, swim the widest ocean, race for the end of time for my children. I hate people who mistreat their children or anyone else's kids. I will go nights and nights without sleep, forget to eat, give up looking "hot" and I will wear sweatpants to Wal Mart with my hair in a ball cap at 2 in the morning if my child is sick or just needs something. I will go without the newest and coolest toys, cars, or gadgets so my children will not go without anything. I love as deep as the ocean, I love my children more than I love myself. I will always put my children before my own selfish needs or wants.

Everyday I get up at the crack of dawn to make sure my children have food to eat when they stir, clean clothes to put on (and they fit). I never get "enough" sleep, exercise, or "me time" (whatever the heck that is).

So I don't climb mountains, jump out of perfectly good airplanes, run marathons, enter triathlons, or anything most people would call "EXTREME", but I don't what most people call EXTREME parenting.

I will NOT be my child's best friend, but I will talk openly with them, hold their hand through whatever life decides to throw at them. I will no let my child run MY  house. They will have rules and consequences for their actions.  My children will ALWAYS know they can come to me with any problem and we WILL figure it out TOGETHER.

I didn't learn my parenting skills from any new age book, paid life coach, or seminar. I learned all my parenting SKILLS, from my PARENTS. My parents have always been my ROCK, and my soft place to land when I stumbled and fell. My parents would have and still would do all the things I listed above for me. I love you MOM and DAD!

January 4th.....Hmmm... Reality sets in.

Well who knew having a dog would make my life a little easier in the morning. Waking up Cade before Baby was a NIGHTMARE, a kicking, screaming, failing nightmare. Now I just tell Cade that he needs to get up and and go play with Baby and he's up and running. LOL. Now tomorrow will be the test, whenever Rick doesn't have to work is when Cade is at his worst, he would much rather stay in bed with his daddy all day (not that Rick stays in bed all day, that man works VERY hard and Plays even harder) than go anywhere with mommy. Don't blame him, I'd rather stay in bed too. Hopefully (keeping fingers crossed) that I don't have a huge fight on my hands in the morning.

Baby is still "My dog dog!" according to Cade, but everyone else is starting to get the picture that she really is Momma's Baby. LOL. Poor little (big) thing can't even jump on the couch, I have to lift her up onto the couch so she can cuddle with me.She reminds me a lot of my old dog, Tyson (he was a boxer whom I lost about 10 months ago). That well temperament that thinks he was a lap dog and didn't know that he was a dog. LOL. He was very playful and loving.

Baby loving on Momma watching some TV.

Today was a difficult day for me at work. My job is a very special job that takes a special person. Not that I am the best at it. I work at Huntsville high school as a professional (fancy title for a classroom aide). So I work with teenagers that are mentally disabled or emotional disturbed. Today one of the high functional, emotional disturbed students broke down on me crying. He was very upset and beat down, because "I don't matter, I don't have a brain, I am not smart, I am stupid!" has been told to him by most of the people he places a lot of value in. How can I make that better, ok, or even tolerated for him? It took everything in me not to cry with him. I told that sweet boy, who is almost a man, that he mattered to me, he was smart to me, that he was intelligent to me, that I loved him, and that my opinion mattered. That everyone that he has as a teacher cared about him and wants to see him go far in life and be the someone great that we all know he can and will be. I don't understand as a parent or as an educator how someone could tell someone so fragile something so horrible. We have laws against students being bullied at school, but there are no laws protecting them from this kind of bullying/child abuse, because it is so hard to prove. I just want every student that I come into contact with know that I think they matter and that I have faith in them now and in the future and most importantly that I LOVE THEM!!!

I'm also been gearing up for college to begin classes again. This semester will be a little tricky for me. I will be taking Physical Science online from SAU Tech, Geology on Saturdays from 9AM to 2PM (freaking shoot me, I hope I can stay awake through this exciting class on ROCKS, stupid rocks!) and Number Systems for Elem Ed Teachers II at NorthArk. After this semester I will be going back to TECH in Russellville and entering the last two years of my degree. So I am on the 13 year plan as of right now. LOL. I can't wait to finish my degree!!! I love my job currently, but some days, I feel like some of the other teachers look down on me, because I don't have a degree or a teaching license. Well two and half more years and I will.


This is an exciting month for me..... My mother will be turning 63 years old in just a few short days (on the 10th) and two days later I will be turning 29 (really 29, not 29 and holding, or anything like that), but more importantly, my husband and I will have been together for 4 years on the 12th. Our first date was on my 25th birthday, I have fallen more in love with that wonderful man I get to call my husband, each and every day. I AM SO BLESSED! I know that I'm not the easiest person to get along with or live with and I came with a lot of baggage, but he stepped up to that and has made my life the fairy tale that I always hoped for. By no means are we rich in the bank, but we are rich in the heart which is all that really matters.

I love you, Richard Ernest Decker, JR. You are my rock, my best friend, my prince, my everything.
.

More recent picture of my family, taken Christmas Eve.

Back to Reality....Ugh... Really!!!

Well Huntsville High School students welcome back to school, this is a dreaded day for most faculty and staff, because it is a really, REALLY long time until the glorious Spring Break. As the school day begins there is buzz running up and down the halls as everyone is so excited to see each other after two weeks, teachers and staff crowding around the coffee pot in the teacher's lounge. LOL We are all drones until we have coffee. You know it is funny, I've never really been a fan of coffee until I started working with teenagers....Hmmm..... Makes you think that, just maybe, they are the cause of some exhaustion, frustrations, and stress. I love my job and getting to know all the students and being there for them in their time of need. There is nothing more rewarding than a student (usually teenage girl) coming up to me crying and so upset because some other student (usually another teenager girl) called her some HORRIBLE name and tried to take her boyfriend and just by sitting there, listening to her, telling her that she is a great person and that no matter what happens in a few short years none of this will matter and that I love the person she is today, tomorrow, and the great woman she will be. I have earned the name from some students, Momma D, which is kind of strange being that I would of had to of been like 10 when they were born, but I wear that name as a badge of honor.

Well Baby Decker is doing very well so far. This morning when my husband got up to get ready for work before the butt crack of dawn (no joke, he gets up at 2:30AM) he felt bad because Baby was in her kennel and was whining, so he let her out of her kennel to. Well he went on to get ready for work and packing his lunch while Baby kept going to the door and he didn't think to open it for her....... Hence he had a puddle to clean up. Good Morning Rick!!! Lol. He then took her outside for a few and put her back in her kennel. I get up (at a more decent hour....5:00AM) I get her, leash her up, and take her outside, she's a wonderful dog and goes straight to go potty and takes me back to the front door, we come back inside and I go about getting ready for work and that little stinker left me not one, but two PILES of a surprise. YAY ME! So I clean that up.... Would of much rather of had Rick's mess for sure.... Back outside we go.....

Cade didn't want to go back to preschool this morning. It's so hard to drop him off when he is crying.... Want to crush you mother, cry when she leaves, brings her to her knees every time. He spent a very two short weeks with me every minute of very single day and going back just wasn't what he had in mind for a good day. But when I go to pick him up that smiling face and running to me just melts me to my knees again.

Christena is old enough to know school isn't all about playing on the play ground and making friends and she just really didn't want to go, sleeping in and playing on her xbox sounded like a way better plan than sitting at a desk going through the day. LOL.

When I was first starting my high school years I never thought that anything past school really mattered. LOL. Stupid teenager!!! Now that I'm a mother, EVERYTHING matters. I remember being so involved in what music was hot, which guys were hot, how I looked was very important and now that I am a "mommy" all that really matters to me are two very important faces and on those faces I always want to see a smile or laugh, never a tear!!! I get mad at kids when the pick on my daughter, pissed off when I hear that someone was mean them, and if someone has hurt one of them I get violent. But nothing calms me down better than my children's smiling faces, a hair clippy, and a pair of sweat pants (and I do rock the sweat pants the minute I get home).

Moral for today..... Love like there is no tomorrow and cherish every second you have with your children!!! Nothing ELSE matters.

New Year, New Addition to the Decker Family........

It's January 2, 2012 and today started at 6AM.... Because today has been a big BIG day. Drum roll please........

I'd like to introduce you to Baby Decker.

Cade, Baby, and Christena Decker

She is a 3 year old English Bulldog, a retired momma and is such a good girl. And the kids and I are already in love. We got her from some friends on mine and I can't wait to spend more time with her.

So everything else done today..... Well I canceled Cade's dentist appointment for tomorrow morning (whew.... off the hook for now), hopefully we can reschedule it for the 31st, went the store and got a few things, went by the high school to cancel my sub for tomorrow because I will be returning from my VERY short Christmas vacation, went and picked up baby, got chicken feed, and took my loving hubby some lunch and showed him our new little (50lbs) addition. I can't wait for him to get home from work and get some bonding time with her.

Cade thinks baby is "all mine," "my best friend," and "my Baby!" I think it's official we have entered the "Mine and My" stage with him. GREAT!!!! He is quite the funny little guy and such a joy to be around, but I have figured out I am better training dogs than kids. Lol. Animals listen better.

Jan 1st...... Day one of this new journey.........

Welcome to 2012!!!! It so nice to see a new chapter beginning. I guess I should first tell you that this blog is simply a place for me to write "stuff" down for reflection. I made a new year's resolution to start "really" blogging. I have a family blog and a photography blog, neither of them I really do anything with or keep up with. And I really don't think or know of anyone that reads either of them. LOL. Real exciting stuff on them.... So anyways, if there is anyone else reading this one, please feel free to share your thoughts with me or whatever.

Well my journey this morning started at 4AM. YAY!!! My two year old, Cade, felt that mommy didn't need anymore sleep and it's time to play. Coffee!!!! I need coffee! After I started the coffee pot this morning I was checking in on my facebook on my computer (which I hardly ever do, because I love my iPhone) and I noticed I had an "other message" (whatever the heck that it) well I clicked it and it's a message from December 9th from a friend of Christena's father. I know, I know, WTH? Why in the world would anyone be contacting me of all people about him, but yes it is true (Happy freaking new year, lets bring your past up). Anyways, I regress, this girl wanted to know what she could do to help him, he is very depressed, yada, yada..... Well me being that mature person that EVERYONE knows I am, I replied, and told her he was a big baby and be a man, he'd work through his problems on him own and all those drugs made him crazy and the drinking was only making it better.

Ok not the most mature thing I have ever done, should of ignored it and deleted it. But it was just eating at me, why should I be the one to help him through whatever the heck it is he is going through. I take care, have taken care, and will always take care of Christena without him, I'm not his mother too, I'm her's. So anyways, there was strike one this new year.

So a little about me.... I am currently 28, I am a wife, I am a mother of two, I am a teacher's aide full time for Huntsville High School in Arkansas, I am a full time college student, I am a daughter, I am a sister. I have a lot of titles, but my two favorite is, wife and mother of two. I met my husband in 2007 (he was dating someone else) and we became friends. Him and the someone else broke up and he and I started talking daily, several times a day. He asked me out on several dates, but I was a single mom and I was to say a "little" leery of dating (ok I was extremely terrified). So we hung out for a while and he met my family (actually the first time he met my family my nephew and daughter asked him if he and I were getting married). We finally went on our first date on my 25 birthday. He had a great time!!! And on June 7, 2008 we were married. Christena was 6 when we got married and on July 11, 2008 we found out we were expecting Cade. Cade was born March 13, 2009.

Christena is now 9 years old and Cade is 2. Christena is a straight A student and always has been. She is very emotional and loving. Oh the joys of pre teen!!! I'm so excited I can hardly contain myself. Cade on the other hand is very stubborn, independent, bull headed, and moody, but when he is sweet, he will wrap you around his little finger and make you melt. 


So the plan for today..... Laundry, dishes, cook breakfast, scrubbing bathrooms, entertain the kids, scrub the white grout in my kitchen tiles (whoever thought white grout in a kitchen was a good idea needs to be taken out a beat), and that's all by 9 AM. Try that one on SUPERMAN, BATMAN, AND ROBIN! I might not look as good in tights, but I do more that just chase villains around all day.