so long April

WARNING!! If you're looking for smiles and skipping through tulips - do not read this!

I thought April would NEVER end. The LONGEST most awful month since we have been here! For multiple reasons - for one, we had no visitors and took no trips. I was thinking back over the almost year that we've been in the Roch. We've either had visitors or gone to visit someone every month except September and April. I didn't blog in September, but I don't remember it feeling as eternal as April.

The recap:

June - Will's family

July - my parents

August - trip to Amarillo

September - nuttin

October - Will's parents

November - Kristen and Jonnathan

December - my family

January - Will's family

February - trip to Little Rock

March - the Shotts and Lexia and Gus

April - absolutely nothing

Secondly, Hayden and I had a virus for about a week mid-April - fever, sore throat, achiness. We were strugglin'. I think Liam might have had a little of the same bug with us, but he didn't slow down much. Shocker.

Hayden and I at our worst

Third, Hayden learned the word no. It's more like "neh!". Oh and it is U-G-L-Y. She usually accompanies "neh!" with a big fat swat at whomever's closest.

caught her in the act

This girl is warping into something I don't recognize. She turned 15 months old this past week and the only word to describe her right now is SASSY! Is there something magic about 15 months? I can't remember it being major for Liam.

15 months - bad lighting but funny girl

sassy

I took her to the dr. for her 15 month check up and she's doing great. 75th percentile for height and 10th percentile for weight - just barely 20 lb. She sits forward facing in her carseat now and thinks it's pretty awesome.

big girl in the car

her handsome brother

Hayden calls Liam "bubba". And I have to admit I kind of encouraged her. I call him that sometimes and she picked up on it because it's easy to say I guess. It's redneck, but I don't care. The kids are at each other most of the time, between Hayden's hitting and Liam's annihilation of everything in his path. They both love bathtime though.

Fourth reason April was the pits - and I hate to sound like a broken record but - Will has worked so much in April. And we went out with a bang yesterday on the last day of April. Last night I fed the kids, bathed them, put them to bed, ignored the mountain of laundry downstairs, drug myself upstairs, ignored the mountain of dishes upstairs and gorged on ice cream and popcorn while i watched a movie. For some reason I feel entitled to my husband on a Friday night, so when he's not there I start to feel REAL sorry for myself. Will rolled in at 10:30, got paged at 11:30 and went back in to work for the night. Oh my did I feel sorry for myself. Repeat story throughout April.

Fifth, we are broke as a joke. Overdrew 4 times in April. I'll take the blame for that. Dadgum.

Number 6 goes along with 5. We dropped our cable service this month. Heartbreaking. I'm serious. It's changed my world. I miss sitting down in front of the tv after the kids go to bed and turning my brain totally off. We get zero channels. And don't tell me to watch shows online. It's not the same.

Number 7, I got a speeding ticket. 61 in a 45. I didn't even know cops existed in Rochester! Apparently they do on county highways.

And the eighth reason takes the cake. My dad has cancer. He was diagnosed with lymphoma on Tuesday the 20th and had his first round of chemo two days later on Thursday. Talk about a punch in the gut - for him and us. It's stage 2 non-hodgkins lymphoma. Dad said it's aggressive but very treatable. So that's good news and Dad seems to be positive and in good spirits. I was a basket case the week he was diagnosed but this week has been better. I will be in Little Rock a week from today. I cannot wait!! So ready to be with my parents and see how they are really doing.

I have to say that I have great friends here who have really been there for me the past few weeks - helped me with the kids, called to check on me, came over to visit. God did not plant me here alone and for that I am so grateful.

We are trying to do fun and different things to keep ourselves sane. I took the kids to the public library for the first time last week. I don't know why we haven't gone earlier. Liam thougth it was so awesome. Books and movies! We went by the movie section and the first movie he laid eyes on was the Snowman movie. I mean, that sealed the deal. The library is officially the best place on earth.

Liam at the library

Last week the kids and I had a hankerin' for a treat (ok just me) so we swung through McDonalds down the street. Culver's is left for the rich folk these days. For $2.02 I can get two ice cream cones. I scraped most of the ice cream off of both into a cup for myself and gave the kids the cones. Perfect system. We sat in the parking lot while it rained and the kids were lovin it.

So hurray, it's May! Tonight Will got home at 5:45!!! We ate scrambled eggs and toast. We put Hayden to bed and then Will, Liam and I had a movie night. We went with a classic - the Jungle Book. We ate popcorn and M&Ms and seriously enjoyed being together.