That's Life I Guess....

I apologize for my 2 month long hiatus from Blogspot. A lot has been happening over here and it just never seems to end. Some of it good, some of it bad, but I guess that's just how life goes sometimes.

My computer is broken again. This means that I can only blog on days that I can borrow Hubby's computer or get up to the library to use theirs. I can't upload any photos right now, but when I get my computer back, that will be the first thing I do. I have tons of adorable ones that I want to post! Boy am I glad we purchased the extended warranty on my computer! We've had about (if I had to guess) over $1000 worth of repairs including a new motherboard, a new fan and a new moniter. Perhaps that's more than $1000, I don't know. I've also had to have the power cord replaced 4 times already, which I know is $130 a pop. Oh yeah, and I've had the battery replaced once. Whew! All of this, and my computer is only 3 years old! Hubby has the exact same computer I do, and he's never had any of these kinds of problems, which makes me think I got a lemon. Everytime I turn around, something is breaking on my computer. The Geek Squad over at Best Buy can greet us by name now, since we're in there so often for repairs. My extended warranty runs out at the end of this month but, since I have gotten my money's worth 10 times over, I am going to go ahead and renew it. That'll get me to the next $1000 worth of repairs, which I fully anticipate. Maybe then I'll be able to purchase a new laptop to replace my current piece of...um....pie. Lemon pie. Yeah, that's it. :-)

My older daughter Gabby will be going up north to Ohio to stay with an uncle up there for awhile. She isn't doing very well in school here and she is hanging out with a less-than-desirable crowd, so after much deliberation and discussion, we've decided that she will go up there for a bit and we'll see what happens. So, I've been working with a lawyer and the court system to try to make that happen. I'm expecting to hear something this week about when she'll be leaving.

Hubby's grandfather died last week and he made the trip to Oklahoma to go to the funeral. This turned out to be a good trip. Hubby was able to get back in touch with relatives he hasn't seen in many years, which was really good for him. His family is divided...many of family members aren't speaking to many of the other family members. His parents don't speak to us anymore and, up until this funeral, none of them even knew about Annabelle. Hubby wasn't sure where we stood with a lot of these people, so he thought it would be best if we kept the news of Annabelle to ourselves for awhile. Hubby really wanted his parents to come back to us because they love and missed their son, not because of the new baby. However, at the funeral Hubby found out that his parents are actually ENJOYING this fight and are "gleeful" about not being on speaking terms with us. "Gleeful"?? Yes, "gleeful". I guess it's like a power trip for them, I don't know. I can't understand the concept of being happy that I'm no longer speaking to my child. I just don't get it and I don't think I ever will, which is good......because I don't want to get it. I can't even FATHOM the idea of disowning Annabelle! There is absolutely NOTHING she could ever do to make me stop loving her and there is absolutely NOTHING that she could ever do that would make me want to disown her. It breaks my heart to think that they are missing out on their granddaughter's life but then it occurred to me...they wouldn't care anyway. If they don't care enough about their own son to stay in his life, they certainly aren't going to care about their son's daughter. But the rest of the family cares and wants to be involved in Annabelle's life and that makes us very happy. Yes, Hubby went ahead and told his family (with the exception of his parents, whom he didn't see at all while he was over there since they didn't bother showing up for the funeral) about Annabelle and the news of her birth was received with love and acceptance, so all is good. Annabelle's family circle is growing and for that we are grateful. I can't wait to introduce all of them to her. They re going to love her, I just know it!

What a sweet little baby she is! Since it has been 2 months since I've been on here, so much has changed. She is walking like a champ now and into EVERYTHING! She gets into the cabinets and drawers, pulls everything out and just makes an enormous mess! I can't keep her from climbing into the dog's water bowl! Oh but what a joy she is! I simply can't imagine my life without her. I am currently working on "habit training" with her. When she throws things on the floor, I want her to pick them up when she's done. I have no problem with her making a huge mess, but I want her to learn to clean up after herself as well. Part of this is because I am using Charlotte Mason's methods of teaching and training children and she strongly advocates "habit training" at an early age and part of this is because I am just tired of constantly picking up all of Annabelle's huge messes! She makes sooooo many of them and they are soooooo big....ugh! I just really need her help on this one! And she's slowly "getting it". She doesn't pick up everyhting all the time, but she picks up some stuff on a regular basis. She's learning, and that's a start. I am encouraged, especially when she starts clapping when she sees me pick something up and then put it away! That is what I do when she picks something up and puts it away, and I find it absolutely adorable (and encouraging!) when she does it to me. That shows me she understands what is supposed to be done, even if she doesn't always do it.

My little Princess will be turning 15 months old this week and I am planning on taking her out to get her portraits done. I am going to have some Halloween portraits done and am really excited about it. She is going to be a Ladybug Fairy this year and she looks sooooo cute in her little costume! I'm excited! We don't do the whole trick-or-treat thing, but we will be going to the fall Festival at church where Annabelle can participate in little kiddie games and activities, as well as just hang out and play with other children. We will also be taking her to Hubby's workplace, where they do a cubicle-to-cubicle trick-or-treat. I don't let her have candy yet, but it wil be fun to see her going around collecting it.

I found out that my sister and her family will be coming for Thanksgiving this year. That'll be fun! It's really nice to have company over. We don't get many visitors now that we live so far away from the rest of my family. Of course, we didn't get many visitors before either, when we all lived in the same town! Thanksgiving was always a big holiday growing up, though. Relatives from far and wide would show up at our house. Even back then, when I was a child, I knew they were only showing up for the free food. I still enjoyed it, though, because it was the one time of year when I knew I'd get to see everybody. I love family get-togethers, I always have. Life is so short.....why not spend it with those we love the most?!