Catching up....

GO TEAM! Both girls were cheerleaders. LeeAnn, Mia, and Jordan before trick or treating!

LeeAnn and Mia on Halloween

Cameron posing for me in the leaves.

It's a leaf fight! :)

Group shot on the steps~all of the cousins

Courtney and Jason posing in the leaves.

The Bailey Cousins at Ronnie's party.

Ronnie at his sixth birthday party.

My High School Musical cheerleader! Go Wildcats!

I haven't written for awhile. Just thought I would post a few Halloween pics and tell all about a few things happening. First of all, they are talking about school closings for ACS and I am worried about my job. I may or may not have a job next year. I tell ya, nothing is secure anymore. I don't know what I will do if I lose my job but hopefully I will be able to find something that allows me to still be home for LeeAnn because that is very important to me! Eddie keeps telling me not to worry about it because nothing is for sure yet but if you know me at all I worry about everything and way before I need to!

Thanksgiving is approaching and I am excited about spending time with both families and hopefully getting some good pictures. Eddie is off the weekend of Thanksgiving so he will be able to go to Cameron's birthday party but he will miss our family Thanksgiving at Ruth's. It gets hard when he is not able to be there but at this point I am just thankful that he has a job!

LeeAnn is growing up so fast and it really has me thinking A LOT about those teenage years. We have been trying to start little by little on talking with her about stuff. I want her to feel comfortable coming to me for anything. She is a good kid with a good head on her shoulders and I hope that she doesn't give in to peer pressure in the future. Again worrying way before time but you know me~! :)

Well, not much new to report. Here are my most recent pictures! Enjoy!

Not taking life for granted....

Not to long ago I saw a movie with Eddie called Fireproof. It really made me think about what was important in life. I had been taking my marriage for granted for awhile and never realized it. We were comfortable with each other always taking for granted that the other one would always be there. After seeing that movie and the struggles this couple went through, it made me want more from my marriage. Since then Eddie and I have had ups and downs. I have made the decision to change things and sometimes my expectations from him are set to high and he gets frustrated with me. But we are working through all that and we are doing better than ever. A friend of mine at work helped me realize that for the past nine years my focus has been pretty much totally on LeeAnn and I have sacrificed my relationship with my husband. So, now I focus on us as a family and we are spending so much more time together and just enjoying our little family. Thursday and Friday we spent some time together as a family in Brown County. It was gorgeous down there and we just took in all of God's beautiful creations and enjoyed spending time together. Also, recently, I bought some "conversation cards" from LeeAnn's fundraiser. They are cards that give you things to talk about at the dinner table. We have been making sure we sit down together as a family for dinner and we talk using these cards. It has been nice to hear some of the nice things that LeeAnn and Eddie feel about me and it really is helping us to grow closer as a family. I strongly recommend the movie Fireproof. It is life changing. At least it was for me. Never take anyone for granted because you never know how long they will be there. I know I will never take Eddie for granted again or my beautiful little girl. (who is not so little anymore) Life is good. God is good. I have wonderful family and friends and that is all I can ever want or need! Here are some pics of our trip to Brown County.

Just an update on life

Rob and Rachel Aunt Rachel and LeeAnn at Ryan's
LeeAnn and Gracie
our little family at the Pendleton Fall Festival!
Grandma and Grandpa came along with us!
Cousin Kim and her girls Yvonne and Kayla

Yay Gracie! :)
Ronnie has a baseball at the Indians game.
LeeAnn and Cameron
Grandma getting some love from the kids!

Things are going really good for me right now. I seem to have a control on my anxiety now since the doctor upped my meds. I am so thankful for that. We served communion in church this morning and we served the first 8 rows. At first I was like we are going to be in the very front of the church! But it was all good and I really wasn't nervous. It was nice to feel normal! Eddie has noticed a big change as well. I have just been sooooo sleepy with the higher dosage and worry that it is not going to go away. It has been about a month now and I hope that side effect gets better.

Work is going well for me too. I am adjusting to being back at ESMS. I LOVE being able to see my two dearest friends Teresa and Vicky again. They have really made a difference in my life. I didn't realize how much I missed seeing them everyday.

I am hoping that starting tomorrow I am going to start working on weight loss and exercise. Teresa and I were supposed to start last week but she hasn't felt like it. So, if she still isn't wanting to I am going to make myself do it alone. I know it will be harder without someone to motivate me, but I have to do it for my own health. I am frustrated with feeling tired and having no energy all the time! I have failed so many times at this so I am kind of going in with a negative attitude. I hope something is different this time!

LeeAnn is really doing well in school so far. She has had a couple of bad grades but mostly A's! I am very proud of her! Her teacher is GREAT! After last year that makes all the difference. Tomorrow we have a picnic at her school and it should be a great time to meet other parents and talk with her teacher. This is the first time they have done this and I am excited about it!

Not much else to report....on to some random pics....

Anxiety

I don't really have any pictures to post right now but I just wanted to post a blog about my anxiety struggles that I have been having. Most of you know from reading my blogs on myspace that I suffer from anxiety and stress. I have been on zoloft now for at least six months. I was on it before and it seemed to help me better than it has this time around. So, yesterday, I was at the doctor for my yearly checkup and I talked with him about it. He asked me about some of the symptoms that I was having. People always assume that I am depressed. I am not depressed at all. I just worry about everything. And that is actually an understatement. I worry when there is no apparent reason why I should be worrying. Sometimes I can't even pinpoint what it is that is making me anxious but there it is just the same. I have one friend who hates that I take medication for this problem. I have tried techniques of all different kinds and I just can't control it. So, my doctor upped my dosage to 100mg. I was on 50mg. So, I took my first double dose tonight and now all I can worry about is if I am going to experience side effects from upping my dosage. I CAN'T SEEM TO WIN!!! I just want to be normal and live life and be happy and not stress all the time. I am hoping that upping the dosage will work. If not I don't know what I will do because it seems like as time goes on it just gets worse. At some point I am going to freak out if I have to leave the house. I just ask that you guys pray that I can overcome this and get back to being normal! (or as normal as I was anyway. ) :)

A mini vacation....

The cute Orangutan and the gorilla
Me and LeeAnn riding the Carousel
The peacock trying to attack Eddie. :)

Eddie and LeeAnn outside where we ate lunch
Posin' for a picture

The spider web got the best of LeeAnn! :)

Riding the train.

Eddie was on vacation last week and we decided we needed to do one last fun thing as a family before summer ended. We on the spur of the moment decided to go to the Cincinnati zoo. This might seem stupid since we have a membership to the Indy zoo, but Eddie thought it would be fun to see the different animals that are at the Cincinnati zoo. I especially LOVED the orangutans and the gorillas. Something our zoo is lacking in is the Monkey department. They also have manatees that LeeAnn and I loved watching. They were very active swimming around in the water and it was neat to watch them. They also have a black bear. Our brown bears recently died. LeeAnn and I love the Walrus' though at our zoo and the dolphin show, two things that weren't at the Cincy zoo. I guess one zoo can't have everything. We also got unlimited train, carousel, and tram rides for a few extra dollars on our admission. And we watched a 4-d movie that was pretty cool. Oh, I can't forget about the peacock that about attacked Eddie over our popcorn. That was hilarious. They have peacocks all over the Cincinnati zoo and they will come right up to you. It's neat. Okay so onto the pics.

Summer fun in the water!

This past Friday I had Livy, Jordan, and Mia over to spend the night and we went to Mounds Park to swim. Onita came out after she got off work and we decided the water was too cold to swim. Those kids have no fear of the water and it takes me back to when I was a kid and how terrified I was of the water! I am so glad LeeAnn is not like that. She is already jumping off the diving board and she is learning to swim the correct way. She can doggie paddle very well. She is also learning to go under without plugging her nose....something that I will never learn to do!

Then Saturday Mom and I took LeeAnn, Ronnie, and Gracie to the water park in Middletown to play in the water. Ronnie and Gracie LOVED playing in the water. LeeAnn was more concerned with being a little "mom" to Gracie. She loves babies. Even though I can't convince her that Gracie is not a baby anymore she still likes to mother her. She really should have been a big sister. I only hope when she grows up she has a whole mess full of kids so I can be a Grandma. :) Okay onto the pics! Enjoy!