Be Careful What You Promise

I've always told Kylee that as long as her attitude and grades were good, I wouldn't argue with her about her hair; that it was her hair, and she could do with it as she pleased. So about six weeks ago, she started seeing Lorraine(on the right), who happens to be both a cosmetologist and her dance teacher, to cut her hair. She loves her. Notice the color in Lorraine's hair? Well, guess who wants it?! And guess who reminded me that she has both good grades and a good attitude...most of the time?!? Yup, you guessed it. Kylee. I told her that she could do it, but I wasn't paying for it. I didn't promise I would pay for it; I only promised I would let her. I told her I would pay for the haircut, but I would not pay for color. After finding out that streaks would only be about $25, she announces she will pay for it.

Great.

I told her I was fine with it, but that she had to call her Daddy and make sure he was. Of course, his answer was an immediate and firm NO. She cried. I told her I would talk to him, but I couldn't promise anything; Daddies are that way, and they will never change. I did talk to him. It didn't work.

Today she went for another haircut. She didn't even ask or complain or whine about not being about to get her color. But the girls at the salon had told her about the clipons you can buy at Sally's. The boys were at tball practice, and we went to Sally's. She got two colors, redand green. She put the red in and went to dance.

I was busy with Blaine with it came time to pick her up from dance and asked Joey if he would pick her up from dance. About 15 minutes later I get a text, "WHY does Kylee have a pink streak in her hair?!!" haha! He thought it was real, and he was HOT! She had so much fun with it, too! By the time they got home, she had told him it wasn't real, so I wasn't in hot water. This is the closest she'll get to real for a while, I'm afraid.

P.S. I really would let her do it. I figure if the worst thing she does is color her hair, we've done GOOD!

Me and Them

Right in the middle of our freeze, Joey left us to go hunting. It was actually a planned thing. Blaine was supposed to go, too, but it was so cold, and I was afraid it would ruin him for life! I was afraid he would never go back because all he could think about was how cold it was. He was totally ok with it, too. We told him that he could go, but that it would be REALLY cold, and we thought he shouldn't go. He said he was going to stay home, and he never gave it a second thought.

Since it was a "special" weekend, I told the kids we would do something fun on Saturday while their dad was gone. Shock of shocks, they wanted to go skating. I agreed, figuring I could snuggle up in a chair with a book and some hot chocolate. But when we went by the skating rink, it was PACKED. Last time it was packed, they both and maybe me too ended up crying because they got hit or knocked over or somebody ran into them. I did not want to do that again. I told them if they would skip it, they could pick a place for lunch, have an appetizer and desert, and they could each pick a store to go to and buy something little.

(Did I take a camera? No. You'll just have to take what I came up with.)

They pickedThey chose calamari for an appetizer, which Kylee proceeded to choke on. I mean, really choke on, not that I believed her at first. I thought in true mother-of-the-year fashion that she was being a drama queen. Until she turned red. Then I was scared! It even scared the men in the booth next to us. I was pulling her out of the booth to do the Hiemlich when she got it out herself. The men behind us had even come over to help! Anyway...she survived, and was still hungry. For desert, Blaine and I splitFebruary's featured raspberry tiramisu. Heavenly. And Kylee hadItalian Lemon Pie. She said, and I quote, it was "lemon goodness served on a plate."

Then we headed to stores of their choices. Blaine chose. That's right. My six-year old is definitely MY child. Every time I turn around, thisis how I find him. I LOVE it! Pops and Dawn got him the first three books of Hank the Cowdog for Christmas, and he wanted the next one. We didn't find the fourth book, so he got a Phine@s and Ferb chapter book instead.

Since my girl doesn't like to read, I decided to bribe her. I told her if she would actually READ a book, I would buy her a book and something at her store. To my delight, she found a book, and we all sat down at B&Nto read a bit. To my dismay, this lasted all of three minutes before she was up scouring out the art section for sketch books. She didn't buy a book.

So we headed to herstore of choice, where she bought thisprecious sweater. SHe also had a gift card to their to add to what I had promised them.

It was an amazing day with my kiddos, and I love them both more than I knew possible. It's amazing to me what different things I have in common with each one of them, and I just get tingly thinking about it.

On the way home, I decided to head to my favorite store for my favorite drinkwith my favorite kids to end a near perfect day!

Happy Birthday, Uncle Kyle

Ice Ice, Baby

What a week!! THis week has felt like a year.

Sunday, after getting home from Ruidoso, I went to bed exhausted. I got up about 10, like 20 minutes after turning the lights out to go to the restroom. Only, I couldn't go. UGH! I went back to bed, but not for long. About 10:15, the pain came attacked in full force and effect. I rolled around, groaned, wanted to scream but didn't, and just about lost my mind for almost an hour. Then I woke up Joey and told him I was going to the emergency room. He woke up from a dead sleep, saying, "Wait! Let me call your mom." Nope, not waiting. By the time my mom could get to my house, I could have drugs. I was outta there! I'm not sure HOW I got myself to the ER with the pain I was in. It was literally making my eyes cross. At one point, I set the cruise and literally stood up in my seat trying to ease the pain. After a three shots of morphine, a shot of tramadol, and an amazing nurse, the pain eased enough for a CT scan. Kidney stones. The doctor kept me at the hospital for pain management until the stones had traveled into my bladder. So at 5 in the morning, I headed home. The morphine and tramadol let me sleep until 5 in the afternoon. I was SO worried I wouldn't be able to sleep that night, but sleep I did. Tuesday I went back to work feeling so much better. I even passed the stones at work, but it was nothing compared to the pain of them moving.

The talk of the town Tuesday was the weather, how cold it was going to get, how everything was going to shut down, blah, blah, blah. I believed not a word of it. Blaine even came home with a note from school to check media outlets for word of late school starts or closures. So Wednesday morning, I turned on the news before I even got out of bed. School not starting until 9:45. Awesome! I went back to sleep. For about 15 minutes. Blaine comes running in asking if I watched the news and did he have to go to school. We turned the news back on, only to see that school was not getting a late start. It was closed. The courthouse was closed. LOTS of stuff was closed. WOW. Gotta see this.When I saw this, I thought, This is like a light sprinkle to the Wilhites (my mom's family) who live in the Artic, also known as Clovis, NM. Then I stepped outside to get firewood. It was like jumping into a freezer while you are soaking wet! C ! O ! L ! D! Y'all, it was THREE degrees. The wind chill? BELOW zero. Single digits in the desert, people. This was definitely history. Let me tell you how cold it was. My kids didn't even go play in it. It was THAT cold. You couldn't stand it. History making low temps, ya'll. Only it was just the beginning.

Our desert electric company couldn't handle the single digits. We're talking all kinds of problems. There were rolling blackouts, busted water lines, and basically a total city shut down...for THREE DAYS! That's right, folks. No school or work Wednesday, Thursday OR Friday. It wasn't that the streets were icy or so bad either. It was simply the temperatures.

So for three days, we were in the house. We didn't even play outside in the snow. This iswhat itlooked likeat our housefor three whole days! The city was asking us to conserve electric and water, too, so I couldn't even do laundry. We literally layed around for three days. Joey even got to stay home two of them.

I am not complaining one bit, either. I will say one thing: I have a new-found respect for the Wilhites in the Artic. I'm not sure I could stand it for weeks and months on end, but I sure did enjoy the Ice Ice, Baby for the three days the Artic visited the desert.

Joey's 2nd Annual Ruidoso Trip

This weekend, we went to Ruidoso for Joey's birthday. I did it last year for his 40th, and although his 41st isn't a "milestone" birthday, it's what he wanted. At Christmas, while talking to Angel and Carrie, Joey's cousin and husband, they offered to go with us and we could stay at their cabin. Great! We had also planned to take Estradas and the Hayes, but at the last minute, Chris and Shawn both had work commitments come up they couldn't get out of. So we and the Reyes family headed up. They got to leave earlier in the day, though, so we met them there.

As we passed the check station on the way up, like we always do, the Border Patrol agent asked us to roll down the back window. It was dark, and I'm sure he was just checking. As we drove away, Blaine said, "I don't know why he did that, like we haven't been here before. He must be new!" I laughed all the way to Alamogordo.

Before I go any further, let me explain Angel's job. He takes care of Troy Poe, Dick Poe's son. Dick Poe owns several car dealerships here in El Paso. Troy has cerebral palsy. The only thing not handicapped about Troy is his mind. I was a little concerned about how my kids would react to him. I'm not sure I've even been prouder of these kids. He was one of us, period. They loved him, and he loved them. Of course, Kylee was all about Cole, the baby, but Blaine totally treated Troy like his bud.

Saturday morning, we got up and had breakfast. The kids played and laughed with Cole. Kylee even took him on an adventure outside the cabin. Blaine was checking everybody's mood on an app on his iPod. You put your thumb on the iPod, and it tells you what mood you are in. He took it right over to Troy like nothing and Angel helped him put his thumb on it. It showed he was excited. When Blaine asked him if that was true, Troy agreed.

While Cole took a nap, Joey and I took the kids sledding. We were going to sled with them, but when we got there, they asked if they could go alone. Since we could see them always, we let them. They LOVED it and thought they were so big.

When we were done sledding, we met Carrie and Angel at the bowling alley. Troy bowled with the ramp and so did Cole. All the guys had bets going, and Troy was not to be left out. When he got a strike and Blaine walked over and fist bumped him, as if nothing, my heart totally swelled.

After bowling, we ran to the grocery storeto get some stuff for supper. While we were cooking, Kylee showed off her babies to Cole.Blaine wanted to play I Doubt It with Troy, so we played. Troy and Angel were a team, and they beat us all.

The next morning while I was getting ready, Angel called to the kids that there were deer outside. Kylee took the camera and got some awesome pics.

Before we left, we had to hit the candy store, doggie treat store, and, of course, the go carts.It was supposed to be Joey's weekend, but we all had a great time. Joey hit the casino at night. We've been contemplating a house that is REALLY expensive but perfect for our family. The kids were convinced since Joey came back from the casino $200 ahead, that would make up for what we need for the house. Ah, the innocence of children. What would I do without them?