i lost my child today

don't freak out he is here beside me now, but...

also, remember that people lose their kids all the time and find them so the story i am about to tell is not the first nor will it be the last time this story is told. or maybe he ran away. and also remember that i did break a mirror the other day so my 7 years are beginning (maybe the last year can count as time served).

tayte had a couple of friends over to play. they were running in and out of the house so i left the backdoor open. it could do the house some good to get some fresh air in, right? anyway payton went outside, he came in, went back out and so on. he was upstairs in his room pulling every toy out of the crate the last time i saw him. i went about changing sheets, washing sheets, picking up and so on. well it had been a while since i had heard anything from him. he can spend a lot of time in his room so i ran upstairs to check. not in his room.

not in the bathroom (another favorite place because of the water).

not in my room (loves to pull out all my scrapbook stuff).

checked his room again, maybe in the closest, or under the table. nope.

checked in the backyard. yelling his name. nothing.

at this point i am beginning to freak out. he will answer when i yell at him.

go back in the house to see if he is inside, i must have missed him. yell at tayte and caden to help me find him.

surely he didn't get in the front yard. he can't open the front door or the door that leads to the garage-God bless a settling house. i ran in the front yard, yelling his name like a crazy person, and across the street there he was. the lady who lives 4 houses and an empty lot down the street had him.

he had been gone long enough to walk down the street, stand in the ditch crying, her find him, her walk him back down the street checking each house for someone who knew who this kid was. all the people on our block who know us were at work. and usually the boys play in the backyard so the old guy across the street didn't know who he was either. she was about to call the police and the two things that would have brought him back home were: most of the police force know us (no we are not in trouble the police-chief of police lives down the street) and the other thing is the little stinkbug had taken a card baylee had made that had a picture with baylee, tayte and i on it.

that is another reason we love living in a small town. this bad situation could have been worse. much worse. much, much worse. but he is home without anything wrong with him. except maybe his eardrums are sore for me yelling at him that he can't wander off like that. that little stinkbug.

tara

missing lee

lee had to go to san antonio for work. he left sunday and won't be back until tomorrow. we really make a good team and divide the parenting tasks equally (or pretty much equally). so to go 3 days without him has been hard. i have felt like a single mom and not so much a fan of it. don't think i will be doing it anytime soon. there are tons of other reasons i will be staying with lee but, that is for another post. i've not really enjoyed getting into bed by myself. the upside though is that i could lay in bed and watch tv until i wanted to stop. i like the feeling of knowing that lee (even though very ocd) locks every door.

i have not been the only one missing him. each night the boys have talked to him on the phone to tell him goodnight. tonight tayte started crying. it was a long day and to add to it not seeing his daddy was more than he could take. he is used to his daddy picking him up from the store everyday and getting to come home. so since that was not the case he was already in a mood. baylee is older so he understands but, that still doesn't make it any easier. i noticed his voice kinda soften when he told his dad goodnight. he asked if he was coming home tomorrow a couple of times. payton has been non-stop since sunday. he definitely is acting different so i think he misses his daddy as well. he even pointed to the office earlier today and said "daddy."

lee says with his promotion there could be more traveling. we all are ok with a night but, three nights is hard on us all. we only have to make it one more night. we can do it.

tara

i've been tagged

ok tag, and i'm it! my friend tammy tagged me and mentioned that this was a good way for jump starting your blog when you seem to be in a blogging rut. link the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.

*share 7 random/weird facts about yourself.
*tag 7 other people and link to them at the end of your blog.
*let each person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment.

1. i don't eat cheese often. it is the texture thing. gross.
2. rachael calls lee's friends and us saved by the bell: the married years because most of us met and dated in high school.
3. in high school i once dated 3 guys that were friends and guess still are friends. not at the same time one after the other.
4. even though payton will be the death of me i still want a fourth child. as i type this he squirted half the boys toothpaste in the sink.
5. i always have a jacket in my car especially in the summer.
6. i only wanted to boys and then no more children.
7. my best friend growing up was also named tara.

now i tag 7 people. some of these people may not even know i blog yet. hehe. they are rebecca, jen, cassie, brenda, and brandi sorry that's all i got.

i had to think about some of those.

tara

shouldn't have gotten out of bed

do you ever have those days when you know you should just climb into bed and pull the covers over your head? that day was today. this is how my day went:
first thing this morning:

baylee: mom come see what payton did to my bed
me: what did he do?
baylee: just come see.

so i walk into the boys' room. my eyes for some reason where so dry. i opened them and i swear i ripped my eye in half. (this evening as i type this my eye still hurts). i look at baylee's bed and there are circles the size of softballs, purple, orange, yellow and green. some time in the middle of the night payton got up got markers out of the closest and colored his skin and left the lids off and laid them in baylee's bed. luckily he didn't color baylee's skin, because there was no time to take a bath before school. and according to baylee, "luckily i am wearing long sleaves." they both had marker all over their skin.

this was the rest of the day:

• pulling out of the garage (running late because payton wouldn't get in the car) knocked the passenger side mirror and shattered it. $85 to replace.
• get to work have a customer ask: aren't you the only scrapbook store in town? (yes.) oh, i thought you would have had a better selection being the only scrapbook store in town. i found what i wanted at hobby lobby but i didn't want to buy a whole pack. (what i wanted to reply was go buy at hobby lobby i don't want your snootiness buying 2 sheets of paper. instead i just let her look and walked away). the joys of owning your store. (side note: there are a few girls that i met at the store please remember to take everything i say about the store with a grain of salt. i truly love owning the store, just every once in a while as with any job it sucks and i need to vent.)
• for some reason the boys were extra whiney-so they took a nap to save everyone's sanity.
• raced back to panhandle to go to boys scouts.

now it is time to go back to bed. tomorrow can't be any worse- equally as bad just not worse.

tara

it's a small blogosphere after all

ok. my first weird blog connection.

my friend tammy started a blog. she follows three blogs: mine, karen russell (scrapbook celeb) and kari's. i know kari so i decided to see what they have been up to since they moved. i was looking at her blog list. there was one that stood out, so i click on it. i thought the name looked familiar and sure enough it was one i had seen before. it is the blog of jen's (my cousin's wife) friend from forever. that is not the only blog they have in common:
the pioneer woman
patiently waiting for heaven
and now my blog.

i had no idea that jen and kari would be linked at all, but to have several blogs that they both are interested in still is crazy to me.

crazy.

crazy.

tara

bowl-a-rama

what was i thinking?

kelley's girlfriend's son, jayden, had a birthday party at western bowl. we have never taken the boys bowling, but i decided to take them. it wouldn't have been a big deal except lee is out of town until wednesday. so i, the single mom of 4 days, decided to go to this party. i am really glad we went the boys had a blast and i got some great pictures. the poor lady who's son played with us. the boys weren't bad. they just were going 90 mph the entire time. i never sat down. it worked out really well that all of our kids were together. mackie, caden, tayte, and wyatt were on one lane. baylee, payton, will (poor lady's son), and leah were on the other lane. so we were on the end together. away from the majority of the people. the boys had a blast. for the most part. i had a 3:1- kid:adult ratio. so i really messed up the odds. everyone one else had a better ratio so when they could they did help out. this is what happens when 7 kids bowl with 4 adults supervising. at least to my kids.

payton wouldn't quit pushing the balls trying to get them in the hole they come out of.

tayte hurt his hand within the first 5 minutes of us being down by the lanes.

baylee was my lifesaver. if it wasn't for him i wouldn't have gotten to take any pictures. he kept helping payton get his ball up on the rack so he could push it down. he is growing up too fast. i did tell all the boys before we left the car to stay with me, but that was all. baylee saw that i could use some help and without me asking really showed what a great big brother he can be.

around frame 8 payton had a meltdown and was done.

tayte hated bowling, then he liked it, then he hated it again. at least thats what he said in the car.

baylee wanted to keep playing after our game so he became everyone. at least until we went to play video games.

baylee and caden each had a strike. payton, mackie, caden, and wyatt each had a spare. pretty impressive since they are all under the age of 4 except baylee. caden won by a lot, then wyatt, mackie and finally tayte. for the other lane i think baylee won, then will, leah and payton (not sure on this one because i didn't get to see the final frame).

all in all we had fun and i will do it again. after a long rest-kinda like childbirth, to forget the pain. and when their daddy can come.

tara

words of wisdom by tayte

he just said "heeeere's johnny." don't ask me where he heard that one.

for a kid who took forever to talk he says some of the darnest things. and i mean forever, he was probably pushing 3 before he would really say anything to people other than lee, baylee and i. i always said he hated people and for the most part he did. since he started pre-k he has been a different kid. i am so happy he has found his voice. sometimes, now i wish he would lose it.

other funny things tayte has said:

the applebet (alphabet)

ba-rote (remote)

we have a ds, playstation, and gamecube we don't need anything else. oh and lots of toys too.

i have 3 belly buttons. (2 are not really belly buttons-see if you can guesswhat they are.)

mackie is my girlfriend and caden is my boyfriend (lee didn't like this one and the 2 of them argued about it until lee finally gave in)

tara