New Baby Bargain Site!!

Well, for all of us who are in love with baby bargain sites, there's a new one coming, and it sounds like they're going to be featuring some AWESOME stuff! It's called babyhalfoff.com and it will be launching in about two weeks. As the name suggets, all products will be at least 50% off retail!

Also awesome, they're having a contest to give a way free Tourance blankets - one for Baby, one for Mommy! These blankets look sooo soft and comfy! Here's the link to get in on the contest: http://babyhalfoff.com/blog

I can't wait to see what this site has to offer!

Dance Weekend

This weekend was Caitlin and Taylor's dance rehearsal and recital. Talk about a long weekend!! They did really well and Taylor was adorable! (Caitlin was in a hip-hop class so I can't really say hers was "adorable," but she did really well!)

This pic was taken a couple weeks ago at their pictures. I hate how my new and "better" camera often takes blurry pics. I so shouldn't have sold my old one.

Yes, they are wearing make-up. Their instructor insists it be worn for performances and pictures so that their "faces can be seen from the stage," in hideous colors, no less. They, of course, love it.

I'm going to try to put in a video of Taylor and some other little girls dancing on the floor at the rehearsal as another group was rehearsing on stage. It was adorable.

The Closing of My Heart

Sometimes something happens to you and affects you so deeply, you are never quite the same. When "that something" is a negative experience, the wounds can take a long time to close. Sometimes they never do. Until last night, I had been through two such experiences. There were two times in my life that I was hurt so badly, I will always remember these times as the most difficult, horrible times in my life. The first was my parents' divorce when I was 15/16. After that, I thought that nothing worse than that could ever possibly happen to me. Well, that experience was matched when I became pregnant with my first child and was jerked around for months by my then boyfriend and father of my child before finally being abandoned when I was at my neediest and most vulnerable.

Last night was another changing time in my life. This experience was unique from the other two. It will probably not entail months of hard-core conflict. Or maybe it will; who knows. This experience will likely not change the physical make-up of my life. I will not be physically losing anyone. There is no concrete separation. Life will continue more or less as usual. This loss is purely emotional. It's the kind of loss that happens when someone you trust crushes your soul and rubes salt in your open wounds. It's the kind of pain you feel when you have been completely and utterly rejected by the person you are sharing your life with. It's the way you feel when you look into that person's eyes and see not love, but pure hate. When a new day dawns and the anger is washed from their face and life is supposed to continue on as usual, you realize that not only will your relationship never be the same, but YOU will never be the same.

Blah

This is my father-in-law two months ago at my youngest daughter's first birthday party. Less than a week after this photo was taken, he started feeling sick. He thought he had the flu. About a month ago, he was diagnosed with cancer. At that point, it had already spread throughout his body. Yesterday, he died at age 58, 7 months to the day after my "other" father-in-law died (my husband's step-dad who'd helped raise him since my hubby was 5). He was also 58. Blah.