5,115 Days and Counting

It's amazing to reflect on the changes in the past 5,115 days or the past 122,736 hours or the past 7,364,160 minutes or better yet the past 441,849,600 seconds. I am proud to say that in that time period my baby girl has grown into a beautiful young lady. 

The past 14 years have sure gone by in a hurry. I am sitting here recalling memories of Rebecca's pregnancy and the sign I made announcing Ariel's birth. Our first days after bringing her home and how our St. Bernard (Goliath) instantly became her guardian. I remember our first daddy/daughter fishing trip and more recently watching her harvest her very first deer.

Ariel,


     Throughout the past 14 years I have always been proud to call you my daughter (even with blue, then green, and soon to be purple hair!) I love you just as much today as I did the first time I held you in my arms and while we have both grown up and don't always see eye-2-eye on things I am glad that we have the great relationship we do and that you share my sick sense of humor. I love teasing you but I also love running errands together and you holding my hand like you did when you were a little girl.

I have watched you grow up before my eyes, I look at you and wonder how it happened so fast and how I became the old   parent to a teenager! I am glad we have made some great memories together in you short lifetime and I look forward to making many more as I continue to watch you grow up into a woman.


Some of your smiles throughout the years...

2 weeks of vacation or summer time fun for years to come?

Yes, that is the question.

We had been planning on a two week family vacation to Florida to visit all the parks next year. Anyone that knows me personally knows how much I dislike Florida, California or anywhere with similar temperatures and weather patterns so from the beginning I have been less than thrilled with this plan. This trip wasn't about making me happy though, it was for the kids. I grew up listening to all my friends talk about how much fun they had going to Disney and it wasn't until after I turned 18 that I got to experience it myself and I wanted to give my kids their own childhood Disney memories.

Summers here in the woods are lonely for the kids, there are no other kids within a couple miles to play with and despite having a great brother/sister friendship playing in the woods just isn't as much fun as when you have friends with you. Alex is very close with his cousin's Noah and Lily but they recently moved to PA so once the school year was over it was back to entertaining himself between play dates with random friends.

I often tell my kids "when I was your age I would do ______ during the summer for fun" and during one of these chats I started to realize how different it was for me growing up. I lived in a neighborhood with lots of kids, my best friends were within a 5 minute walk from my house and when we weren't playing sports, riding our bikes, skateboarding or fishing together at the local fishing holes we were keeping cool in one of the many pools within our circle of friends. It was after this conversation the I had an idea, not just any idea though, this one was hopefully going to get me out of going to Florida, cost half as much and give the kids great summer fun every year till they move out and start a family of their own!

What is this wonderful idea you might ask...A Swimming Pool!

I know, I know, ever since we moved out here I have declared time and time again that I would never own a pool unless it was able to be set up and taken down in less than 30 minutes. I have turned down multiple free pools but that was in the past, this is the present.

As I always do I discussed my "idea" with Rebecca to see if she thought it was worth presenting to the family or not. She was very surprised and wondered if I was running a temperature or feeling delirious, why else would I desire a pool unless there was something seriously wrong with me? I convinced her that I was not sick and quite serious about this and with her in agreement I would next give my proposal to the kids.

Several nights later I sat the kids down and presented them with the following question, "Would you rather spent 2 weeks in Florida making childhood memories or would you rather have a swimming pool to enjoy every year all summer long?" Without any hesitation they both shouted "We want a Pool!" I guess after spending a couple weeks in the Arizona desert last year they prefer to avoid warm climates too, Hurray!

Rebecca and I began shopping around for a full package deal and a short time later we had purchased a pool. It took a couple weeks before they came out to install it which happened last weekend. We filled the pool and stabilized the chemical levels during the week and thanks to my Uncle Richard we started landscaping the area around it. My next project will be putting up the privacy fence but I'm in no rush to try digging holes for the posts in our property that's for sure!

In Memory of Moo

The past 2week has been full of strife and emotion to say the least. I have been having some unexpected health issues which has weighed heavy on not only me but the entire family. Thankfully the Dr's have finally started to deal with the cause of the pain and tomorrow will be another round of blood work. During this time we noticed one of our Bunnies was having what appeared to be small seizures but she seemed normal otherwise. The other day when we were doing the daily animal chores we noticed that she had a slight tilt to her head and suspected that she must of had a stroke. Despite her appearance she was still a sweet little bunny who loved getting her daily attention which usually includes a yogurt treat and some petromalt.

Unfortunately she took a turn for a worse early this morning and sadly today we were forced to say goodbye to our sweet little "Moo-Moo" Miley. I've learned that goodbyes will always hurt, pictures never replace having been there, memories, good or bad, will bring tears and words can never replace feelings. Thankfully we have photo's, some great video's and all our memories to help us cope as time goes on.

I tend to be an emotional person and I have found that I have a very soft spot in my heart for my pets. There is truly a difference in animals that we raise for food and those that we raise as pets - I know this as truth as I have never shed a tear over an animal that was destined for my plate but as I am quite sad as I am typing this while I recall the enjoyment Miley provided me, my family, and all the people who visited our home the past couple years.

It will be strange only having one bunny but I'm sure with a little effort Alex can get Sadie to play "Bunnie Battles" with him the way Miley did. It seems like only yesterday I was posting about the day we got them in a tongue-in-cheek Post!

She was a very playful bunny and despite it looking like torture she actually enjoyed her toys and the constant challenges posed to her by Alex in his self proclaimed "Bunnie Battles" I will miss her waking me in the morning with the sound of her playing with her carrot bells.