VW Love

Or envy as the case may be.

I've been dreaming of the VW Passat since I drove it in June when my parents and I visited family in Missouri. Mom and I were talking again about it this weekend which prompted me to go online and see what was out there (in my price range) to accommodate my family of FIVE!

In a perfect world where money was no object I would buy myself a Passat and of course Tom would buy whatever he wanted for himself. Since we live on a tight budget and there is no room for two car payments I will most likely continue to just be dreaming of the Passat ;)

That being said and with only looking online and not at the actual dealership. I'm left wondering if the Jetta SportWagen or the Tiguan might accommodate our families needs?

Having three kids and finding a car that accommodates two car seats and one booster seat has felt very much like a nightmare. Chrysler has recently asked us to sign a release agreement in return for a check in the amount of $1000. Since I was not born yesterday Tom and I have decided not to sign that document and will most likely hire an attorney to straighten things out with Chrysler. Our van spontaneously com-busting has been the biggest headache that will just not seem to go away. God forbid Chrysler do what is right and pay us for our personal belongings and the money that I used to pay off my Van, at the very least.

This whole van fire debacle has made me never want to buy a Chrysler ever again. (Which is kind of sad since my Dad is a Chrysler Retiree) I say that not because I think the next van will catch fire but because the customer service is horrendous. With that said how is the VW experience from any VW owners or previous owners out there?

Jetta SportWagen:

Tiguan:

Passat (My heart's desire):

Equality, Unless You're a Christian

As usual, I'm late to the party with this whole Chick-fil-A hates the gays that I've seen cropping up on Facebook. After I saw the above image and hearing my husband declare he will never eat there again. I decided to check the news to see what in the heck is going on.

I read a few articles today and maybe it's just me but I didn't read once that they declared to hate gay people or that they were afraid to be around gay people.

The latest skirmish in the nation's culture wars began when Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy told the Baptist Press that the company was "guilty as charged" for backing "the biblical definition of a family." In a later radio interview, he ratcheted up the rhetoric: "I think we are inviting God's judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say, `We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage."'

Read more: http://www.myfoxchicago.com/story/19124725/2012/07/26/chick-fil-a-controversy-turns-food-into-political-statement#ixzz21qEC9Ai9

I agree with what he said so am I now a hateful homophobe?

I think it rather funny that everyone is up in arms about this. Really, did we all not know Chick-fil-A is a Christian company? They close on Sundays for Pete's sake; spend a quarter, by a clue.

I for one applaud Chick-fil-A for sticking to what they believe regardless if it hurts their profits.I will continue to eat there and I will even force a chicken sandwich and waffle fry on my husband from time to time.

Leela

Carter dubbed Amelia "Leela" and it stuck. I find myself calling her that 90% of the time.

She has gotten so big in the past month. She sprouted two teeth and one on top looks as though it's working it's way down.

She started crawling and a week later is now walking the edges of the furniture. Amelia has also discovered the joy of grabbing a fist full of cat food and then placing it on the floor, repeat. When you tell her "No, Amelia!" she just looks at you like she is the sweetest angel.

Hannah and Amelia also started to share a room a month or two ago and I'm glad to say it went off without a hitch.

She is still just the happiest, go-with-the-flow baby that God has ever created; we just love her to pieces.

Thank you God for blessing us with a third awesome child.

CoCo

Our newest baby to join the family is a sweet little black kitten that Hannah named CoCo. I cringed a little when she named him. I like normal names for animals and was all set to name him Willy or Murphy. Like a good Mama I let Hannie name him, so we have CoCo. Adding to his special-ness he also shares the same birthday as Hannah, how fun is that to hear when you're four years old?

He had a little bit of a rough start, I noticed that his siblings were coughing and one had an eye that was oozing...oh no. When we first picked him out and put in our adoption application he was fine but four days later when we went to pick him up we could tell something had manifested within his litter. I kept an eye on him and he seemed to have a strange cough but that was it. A few days after we brought him home the group that we adopted him from called me and informed me that this litter of kittens had come up from Virginia and his litter mates have lung worms and one had pink eye. Eh.  They did give me medicine to treat him and thankfully his appointment was scheduled with the vet a day later. He ended up taking a super strong de-worming medicine for 10 days in addition to an antibiotic for 10 days. Thankfully, he is now healthy and doesn't show anymore signs of  parasites, phew! I was worried in the beginning because I'd never heard of lung worms but from what I read on the internet it appeared that the cat could develop pneumonia and make the cat so sick it would die. And really, worms inside your lungs is really never a good thing to hear! 

He is a super cute and friendly little guy and warmed up immediately to my other kitty boys. Here he is sleeping in the middle of  Simon (left) and Figaro (right):

I call him puss-puss and Carter calls him baby. Carter is attached to him the most, he looks for him all the time and will pick him up and carry him around when he finds him :) The cutest thing ever!

and with family like that...

I don't even know where to start. I'm sad. I'm not sad for myself, she's been calling me fat for the past 10 years. I'm sad for Hannah. I'm sad that she has an Aunt and Uncle who are so ungodly hateful that it is unfathomable. I'm sad that her Aunt tries to pin her cousins to dislike her. I'm sad that she won't be able to play with her cousins any more. I'm sad that my parents play the fence and further perpetuate an already rocky existence. I'm sad for Carter that because he is the only boy he is hated for it. I'm sad that I don't have a sibling that I want to be around and we've been like that for longer than I can remember. I'm sad for my nieces who have mommy dearest for a mother.

How did it get this way?

There will be no coming back from this fight. This was most definitely the end for me; what a sad relief.

Carter, Now Sugar-Free!

Ugh, that's where I'm at right now.

I've heard it all when it comes to my sweet boy and I'm beginning to think I should rename him Handful or Pistol or Something Else since that is how he's most often described. The descriptions annoy and frustrate me. My son is not bad or mean. And I don't appreciate grown adults saying that in front of him or about him in front of their children. He's a two-year old boy who is extremely active and entirely too smart for his own good.

I've been praying a lot more lately about my Buddy. Along with prayer I've been scouring the Internets and giving quite a bit of thought on how to help Carter with self-control, hyper-ness and occasionally hitting (hangs-head-in-shame).

I feel like I'm a reasonably intelligent and logical person and I see that discipline (we've tried every different way) does not seem to faze my boy in the slightest. I am also smart enough to realize that no one is perfect and I am speaking to myself when I say that. I've been reading about ADHD. It runs in Tom's family so I know there is a very strong chance that he may have it too. I also tell myself he's two years old, he's supposed to be hyper. Then I begin to wonder, when is it too much? At what point do you call the pediatrician in to have him evaluated?

My internal Mama Bear is telling me something might be "wrong." On the flip side the one thing I haven't tried is eliminating sugars. This has become my next step. I've taken down tons of notes, installed new child-proofing devices around the house and I'm ready to give this a good fight. I've been very deliberate and repetitive in my new discipline routine. I've also added a supplement of Omega-3 Fatty Acids. My fingers are crossed as we venture into discovering what triggers my sweet angel to seemingly go crazy.

Powers Boothe and Chuck

I'm pretty sure my Dad should have been an actor in the mini-series: Hatfields & McCoys. When Powers Boothe came on the screen Tom and I cracked up laughing and agreed he looks just like Chuck. What say you?

It's eerie the resemblance!