Happy Thanksgiving!

There is much to be thankful for this year in the McGyver home. I survived leaving the "Arrogant's Office" and am busily building a new and exciting company. I am married to a pretty incredible guy. Dreamsicle is flourishing-no longer a baby, well on her way to little girl. X*Boy remains close to home and is the love of Dreamsicle's life. Chester was able to call this morning-allowing us the luxury of speaking to him for the first time since his feet hit the sand. He is busy and safe and that is all that really matters. Pixie and U*Haul have given us a great joy in our grand son Lil Pea. I love my family so much and I am so blessed to have them all healthy and intact.

While speaking to Chester he shared with me that their mail has not caught up with them yet. He will have boxes upon boxes of goodies to open when the mail finally does arrive. The image of the look on his face on that day makes me smile. I know exactly the grin that he will be wearing, the way one eyebrow will lift up and try as he might to not squeal a little, I am sure a little giggle will escape. Let's hope the mail doesn't take to much longer to get there though, other wise the birthday cake I had shipped over to him is probably going to be green instead of chocolate.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone-may you be surrounded by those that you love.

Why Have I Been Awake For The Past Two Hours?

It is now 4:30 am and I have been awake for two hours. I have no idea why. Must have too much stuff going on in my head.

Today is a big day!!

My baby boy turns 21 today. U*Haul was born on Thanksgiving 21 years ago today. This is the first time we will not celebrate that momentous occasion together. I wanted to send him a birthday cake but he swore that he doesn't have an address. Wellll, this mama got a little creative and if all goes well my beautiful brown eyed boy will be receiving a sweet treat today despite him being a nomad with no real address. I decided that if I could get a cake delivered to Chester who is living out of his tank in the middle of the sandbox I could certainly find a way to get one delivered to my son who is simply living in VA.

Why do attorneys have to always be so attorney-ish? It looks like our next big thing which we had lovingly started calling the January project is falling apart because of legal mumbo-jumbo that is simply not acceptable to us. Blech.Please pray hard that we are able to work through all of this.

For the past week Dreamsicle has been waking up at 3:30 and coming up into our room where I promptly get up and take her back down to her own bed, repeat the same thing at 4;30 and again at 5:30. This morning when she appeared at my bedside at 3:30 I kissed her goodnight as I lovingly lay her back down in her bed and she called out to me as I was leaving her room-"mama, your breath stinks-ewww". Nice kid.

She has some new sayings that I think she must have picked up from preschool. Whenever I ask her to do something that she does not want to do she looks me in the eye and says "that is just terrible mama". Or the other one that is bound to become a classic here-"not now mama, I'm working".(Okay, that last one probably didn't come from pre-school)

I Am So Uncool

I thought I would try to "get with the times" and sign up for My*space and Face*book. I hear so many people talk about how they get all into it and catch up with people they haven't seen in forever. It sounds like fun. There is only one problem. I have no idea what I am doing. When that little side bar comes up on my Face*book screen that shows people I *might* be interested in becoming friends with I get all sweaty. What if I ask someone to *be my friend* (gosh does that bring back feelings of uncomfortableness from school) and they decline? What does that say about me? I get a message on my email that alerts me to the fact that someone has written on my "wall" and my head is suddenly filled with Pink Floyd and I get all excited. Wow! Someone is actually communicating with me! Yippee! (Cue Sally Fields-they like me, they really, really like me). Then there is my My*space account where I have 5 friends. 4 of those friends are my family. Hmmm, I happened upon some screen the other day and saw that Chester and U*Haul were actually having a conversation about me from 5 months ago that I had no idea they had-why? because I had no idea that screen was even there! On my own My*space account! And let's not even talk about T*witter. I have no idea what that is but think I should stay far, far away.

I Miss Chester

Dreamsicle and I spent the weekend getting Chester's Christmas boxes put together and ready to ship. Do you have any idea how hard it is to come up with gifts to send to a boy who is living in a tank? He is getting new underwear and socks, a few DVD's, a PSP game, Yahtzee, various balls (football, soccer ball, baseball) and some new books. I purchased four stockings (one for each guy on the tank) and filled them all with little goodies and trinkets as well. I'm not sure how his Tank Commander (TC) is going to feel receiving a stocking since he is Jewish but Chester assured me before he left that they had already discussed it and his TC was cool with it. If anyone reading this blog is Jewish, I would LOVE some ideas on what to send! I also sent a small tree with lights and Dreamsicle and I made salt dough ornaments that we painted and added to the tree this weekend. Chester said they were planning on attaching the tree to one side of the tank and his TC was going to attach a Menorah to the other side, can't wait to see pictures of that!
Getting all of this together made it hit home that my son will celebrate the day of his Saviour's birth half a world away. In a country that doesn't believe. Our boys have chosen career paths that take them far away, put them into dangerous situations and keep them away from those that they love for months at a time all to serve this great Nation. Christmas is going to be rough this year.

Dream-isms

When Lil Pea is crying, Dreamsicle runs to get his "firepass" (pacifier)

When she see a bunny rabbit she will quickly exclaim "Look! a rabbit-bun"

When she is happy she will demand that McGyver and I look at her because she is "shmiling"

She thinks we made up Cwismas (Christmas) just for her. _________(insert her real name here) Cwismas-thank you mama! thank you daddy for ___________(insert her real name here) Cwismas.

Imagine my surprise when she told me yesterday while we were eating dinner-"Mama, Junior in Heaben cuz all dogs go to Heaben."

Just How Big Is 80 Acres?

That is a question I have been pondering since Saturday. I went hunting with McGyver on Saturday. This is the second year that I have joined him in the deer blind. This year he bought me my own gun. Silly, silly man. I practiced shooting it for months before opening day. I got a buck, he didn't. And as I was watching my big burly husband drag the deer out of the woods silently praying that he didn't have a heart attack because man that is alot of work ~ I stepped in deer poop. Yep, a whole 80 acres worth of land and I manage to step in the 6 inch square that contained deer poop. That probably doesn't even suprise you does it?

My eyeballs are all itchy

Why is it that when you cry your eyeballs get itchy? Seriously. I can't do a thing with them.

Yesterday we lost our faithful, pain in the butt, ADD filled 150 pounds of nothing but "I've got to be with my family" at all costs including nudging my big old head into everyone's lap and drinking out of the toilet because I can dog. Junior stopped eating a week ago. We thought he was trying to wait us out since we had just switched dog foods. But by the end of the weekend we knew there was something bigger than an attitude going on with him. McGyver took him into the vet yesterday where they ran tests, tests and more tests. And by the time I got there, he was nearing the end. So my big old clumsy dog passed away with his head in my lap and my tears falling on his face. He had cancer. A big old obstructive tumor. Man I hate that. We spent the evening trying to explain to a 3 year old that Junior wasn't going to be coming back. She is sad, we are sad. And the silence fills each room that he is not in.

The Soft Side

Dreamsicle and I attended a Mommy and Me playgroup on Friday. There were 11 other little girls that are now with their forever families present. 12 girls total. Some older, some younger. Guess whose daughter is the most timid?

As a seasoned mother of three boys, I am used to my children just jumping into new situations and going for it. With Chester and U*Haul, no matter who they were with, or how long they had known the other kids, they would make friends and soon have everyone following their lead. Fear? Ha! They had none.

Not with our girl. She still hangs back, either wanting me to hold her or not venturing too far away. She broke into tears a few times when she dared leave my side only to be ignored by the other little girls that she wanted to play with. I know that some of this is the age. Side by side play is common, little scuffles are to be expected. But my heart broke for her.

When we visited her preschool for their open house, one of the things I noticed was that she was always wanting to be near her teachers and parapro's. Although she could tell me the names of some of the other kids in her class, she was really more into being near the adults. Remember our decision to pull her out of dance/gymnastics? Same thing.

It is times like this when I wonder what she went through the first 11 months of her life. She feels "safe" with adults but not with other children. Did she learn that fighting for what she wanted never gave her the results she needed so it was easier to just back off and wait for the left overs? It frightens me to think of her being so timid as she gets older. Let's face it, girls can be brutal to each other.

I really need a way to help her begin feeling more comfortable with her peers, either that or I am hiring a bodyguard to protect her.

The Crazy Things In Life

So, it has been a long time since I have posted anything about my day to day bumblings but here goes.

I had a meeting with a potential client. Nice Dress? Check. Shaved Legs? Check. Nice high heel shoes? Check-oops wait a minute-high heel shoe would be more accurate. Snapped one of my stilletos before I made it to the clients office (actually while I was driving, I know, I know, don't ask). Emergency pitstop at a shoe store in strange city? Check.

While visiting the ladies room in our new office building, listened to the person in the next stall carry on an entire conversation while "doing her business". I could tell by the words she was using she was actually speaking to one of her clients. I almost felt guilty flushing.

Before visiting with another potential client I thought it would be smart to order a wrapped style sandwich. Thinking it would be safe because it just had veggies on it, still thought that right up to the point where I took a bite and half of the wrap fell onto my shirt. My beautiful turquoise blue shirt, have you guessed what was in there yet? Dijon mustard. How did I miss that bit of information when looking on the menu?

Random Pics

Chester's pre-birthday celebration when he was home on leave. Yep, those really are Pow*er Rang*ers on that cake.

What? You don't drink your Bloody Mary's with a fish? This was the first drink after my first 5K, at that moment, I would have drank the Bloody Mary OUT of the fish to help ease the throbbing in my legs.

Dreamsicle's first day of school

What's New?

Happy Veterans Day! This is one of those days that gets me all teary eyed. My father, my father in law, my husband and now my children all having served or are currently serving makes this a special day in the McGyver house. Please keep my military men in your prayers. Both are going through rough patches right now so I would certainly appreciate you all lifting them up.

In other McGyver family news:

The office is coming along. I am bidding for business every week so that is a good sign.
Dreamsicle loves to come into the "oppice" and work.

We had her preschool open house last night. It was fun to meet the other parents and see her interact with her teachers. My girl lurvs her teachers. We all had to meet in the gym at a specified time to do a rousing rendition of the "hokey pokey" which I have not done since I was a little girl on roller skates back in the day. Dreamsicle thought it was hilarious to see her mama "shake it all about". We are really trying to work with her and the pronounciation of words. Milk is still "Nilk". Love is still "wuv". Cereal is still "c-we-all" you get the picture. Although a part of me will miss her little sayings, she is a "beeg gool now" (big girl now) and we really need to help her along.

The big thing that cannot be talked about yet is coming along but would like to ask that you continue to cover us in prayer.

I Voted!

Did you?

I got to our local polling place and the parking lot was jammed. At 6:50 am this morning. Lots of people, everyone was in good spirits and the lines moved quickly. It's funny when you live in a small town and there is only one place to vote. You see people that you rarely see, strike up conversations that you normally wouldn't have. That is the part of small town life that I love. The ability to keep it real even on a day filled with emotions such as today. We all found it amusing that Star*bucks and Kri*spy Creme are giving away free goodies for anyone that voted. I commend them for that, too bad we would have to drive an hour to enjoy their goodies. (One of the drawbacks of living in a small town)

In other news...

I have BIG news that I can't spill the beans on yet but wanted to mention it here just so that you could all cover us in prayer. The Lord knows what we're up to, I'd appreciate you all throwing our names up to Him if you are so inclined.

**No, we are not adopting again. Even though I would again in a minute, I don't think Mr McGyver's heart is being moved in that direction**

Fun Halloween Pics and Pic of the Fam Along With The Biggest Balloon Bouquet I Have Ever Seen!

From Left Back-U*Haul, X*Boy, Chester

From Left Front-Pixie, Dreamsicle, Mr & Mrs McGyver and Siren