pure sweetness (some of the time!)

I just wanted to share a couple of the things that my boys have done at unexpected moments recently that were incredibly sweet.

*The "toothfairy" visited K the night that he lost (ok, I pulled it out, at his request!) his tooth. The fairy visited early on, and so, when K woke up to go to the bathroom at about 2am and checked under his pillow, there was his dollar! He brought the envelope containing the dollar to me, and sleepily said "Mommy, the toothfairy came. I want to leave this by you until morning, ok?" And he did. He went back to bed and slept peacefully until morning. When I thought about it, this is so sweet I almost cried. My 6 year old loves me and trusts me SO MUCH that he couldn't think of a safer place to leave his treasure, than beside me.

*Today, Gabe and I were going to lay down on the couch together and watch his new Diego movie. I was getting Shiloh settled in for her nap, and asked him to run upstairs and grab the pillow off of his bed. I figured we'd be cuddling together, one pillow was all we would need. Well, I heard him really struggling on the stairs, and I was done getting Shiloh down, so I went and checked on him. He had his pillow in one hand, and my HUGE body pillow in the other, trying to get everything down. I asked him what he was doing, and he said "Mommy needs a pillow like Gabe." I thought it was very sweet, he had thought of me, and on his own done something to make me comfortable.

to make you smile

We got Shiloh her ballpit!

Chillin'!

Dancing to Daddy's music (while Tyrone was home)

getting DOWN!

Love those wild boys!

real quick

i do not want to disable the anonymous option for commenters, because it's the preferred for several. HOWEVER...if you don't sign, i don't know who you are! so, i welcome everybody, but let me know who you are!

ALSO, and i say this with all love, really, there are things that i consider to personal to post here, about my family (this would be mine and tyrone's families both, i have been part of tyrone's life for almost 6 years now and have earned my stripes :) ) that i will choose not to post. at different times, this may to be to protect someone's feelings, privacy, or any other number of reasons. if you have "insider" info about something that i post, please don't share anything beyond what i do.

thank you!!! and, thank you for visiting the blog!

clover

We have adopted a cat :) Because, well, ok, anybody who knows me at all knows it's pointless to answer this question. hehe I suppose I will always have my animals, it's kinda part of who I am. I thoroughly missed having a cuddly pet after we gave Tito to my mother's friend and co-worker, Ms. Audrey (He has a WONDERFUL home, and is apparently spoiled beyond all belief...thank you for that,Ms. Audrey.)

**sidebar--without a fenced in yard, and with 3 young children, it was incredibly difficult to, by myself, give Tito the time and attention he needed. Ms. Audrey was a perfect fit for Tito, and although we miss him (ALOT) I know that he is seriously loving his new family!

Anyway, I knew that I could not give a dog what it deserved right now, but a cat is a different story! So, I kinda started looking around, and I found Clover, at the animal shelter. We adopted her on Tues., I think it was meant to be, because she was actually slated for euthanization 8 days before we got her, but they kept putting it off b/c the lady in the cat room really liked her alot.

She is a little, quiet, sweet kitty. She sleeps in my bed, and is good with the kids (they have been good with her, as well.) We just got back from the vet, and barring bad blood test results, she has been given a clean bill of health except for a respiratory infection, which they told me almost every cat at the animal shelter has. A week of antibiotics, and that will be history!

Oh, and Tyrone is on board with the having a cat thing. Bless his heart. He told me a while ago that he knew when he married me that I would be rescuing and bringing home animals for the rest of my life.

And....drum roll please....pics of our newest family memter!!

Comfy kitty!

She fits right in with us, can you tell!? I LOVE this pic!!

i cannot believe this

Notice something missing?! My oldest child has lost his first tooth! I cannot believe this. How do they keep growing up?! Mom, I'm calling the president now to get Kaleb's birthday changed! :)

Kaleb is sitting right here with me doing this, and he is so proud that he actually did a dance. Several dances, actually. If you could, could everyone leave Kaleb a comment....he is already asking me what people are saying about his pic. I will read him every single one!

the end

this is the end of the tyrone at home series...back to normal blogging for me now. I do have to tell of a few incredible things that happened to make things easier the day he left, blessings for sure.

Tyrone and I were walking up to the check in at the airport, and a lady from the USO came running around the desk, and chased us down! She was a little out of breath when she got to us :) She told me that if I showed the people at the check in desk my military id, I could get a special pass to go to the gate with Tyrone, instead of having to leave him at the security checkpoint! This gave us an extra hour together, and I cannot even begin to describe how much that hour meant to us.

I stood at the floor to ceiling windows at the gate until the plane was completely out of sight. I didn't know if he could see me, but I wanted to be there if he could. Well, guess what?! He would not have been where he could see me, but as he was getting on the plane, a lady in 1st class caught his arm and asked him to wait for a moment. He didn't know what was going on, but he waited. Then, the lady also caught a flight attendant and told her that she wanted to give her 1st class seat to this soldier! She went and sat in Tyrone's seat in the back of the plane....and my husband got to see that I stayed. Wow.

I had been home for a little bit, Mom had gone back to work, so it was just me, Gabe, and Shiloh. Tyrone called me from Atlanta, needing his leave papers faxed to him. I went to the UPS store right up the road from me to do so. The lady was sweet and fast, taking care of it for me. Once the confirmation came in, she handed me back all of my stuff and said "Here you go, have a nice day, sweetie." When I stopped her to ask how much for the fax, she said, "Oh, no charge." and went on about her business. She didn't say anything else, but I can only imagine that she saw what I was faxing and that this was her way of saying thank you to Tyrone, without having to say a thing.

I really hope that these 3 women have blessings visited on them as well. It means alot, it really does. I have tears in my eyes all over again, just writing about these things. I am really learning how much kindness shown to a random person can mean... God teaches us everyday, doesn't he?

family

We had lots of company the last couple of days Tyrone was home. Some we knew were coming, and some were total surprises! His Dad and Mom, and sisters Sherri and Zinammi, and nephew Pashaun had never met Shiloh before, and it had been way too long since any of the rest of us had seen them. Here are a few pics

Kaleb and Gabe with Grandpa

Meeting Grandma Julia for the first time

This is almost everybody...I can't tell you what I would give to have Shiloh in there with all the grandkids! ok, top row, left to right--Kaleb, Iyana, Christian, Pashaun, KK, Zinammi w/ Mauricia on her lap~~ bottom row, left to right--TC w/ Gabe, Kaila, and Jekal

Everybody loves uncle!

I have been waiting SOOO long to get a pic with all 5 of them together! left to right--Tiny, TC, Tyrone, Sherri, and Zinammi. I can't tell you how EXTREMELY rare it is to have all 5 siblings in one place.

Kaleb and Gabe building stuff with Auntie Zinammi

I loved seeing them gathered around the table eating! (even if it was VERY chaotic!)
how precious is this?!

Tyrone and his Dad, hanging out