I Will Always Remember......

I haven't spilled my heart lately.  I have been just blogging about our day-to-day and not getting personal. I kind of like it that way.....................but I  will always remember 9.11.01

I was a different person back then.  A person I wish to never be again.  It was my second year of college.  I had just gotten out of a horrid relationship.  A relationship that took me 6 months to get out of, a relationship that did a number to my heart, my sanity, my trust and a relationship that shaped my thought process for a year and a half afterwards.  

I had turned into a person that felt nothing. 

 I cared for nothing. 

 I was completely numb.

I was oblivious to the world around me.....zombie like.

My day usually consisted of sleeping in, work, class, and staying up all night with my friends....repeat.

On 9/11 I, of course, was sleeping in.  Our apartment phone rang and I let the machine get it..it rang again, and again, and again until I finally answered it in a tizzy.  It was my roommates mom and she was very upset.  Her daughter was already at school.  She told me I needed to turn my  TV on and that the world was about to change.

I angrily got out of bed, turned my TV on, caught a glimpse of what was happening.  Was wondering what it had to do with us in Tyler, TX and went back to sleep. 

When I made it into work that morning everyone was so emotional....I felt nothing.  I waited tables then and we had a mandatory meeting that morning.  The only thing we discussed was how to treat/react to customers who would more than likely come in that day and take out their frustration on us.  I was so confused on why something in NY would effect the people I would come across that day.....I was so over it.

During that time I was going to Ft Worth every other week for Dr.'s appointments.  I was having surgery on my leg that coming December.  Those drives came at just the right time.  I had 3 hours each way to think.  To get over myself.  To stop being the victim.  To get on with my life.  To move on. To not look back.  To get my thought process back.  My normal thought process back.  That's the year I learned there are bad bad people in this world and it took me awhile to get over that fact. 

The following year I had a check-up in Ft. Worth on 9.11.02.  101.5 were playing all things 9.11 and it hit me like a ton of bricks.  I literally sobbed for 3 hours straight.  I was finally feeling what the rest of the world felt the year before.  When I had walked in to the Dr.'s office they all just stared at me.  I was a mess.  I'm sure they were thinking, "that girl has issues."

That's the day I was released from my demons.  Released from things, that had happened, that I had no control over.  Released from decisions, I had made, that changed the course of my life. On my drive back home I was a completely different person.

It felt good to feel...

To not be numb to the world....

So every year on 9.11 I remember back to my "I don't give a damn days" and oh' so thankful that I was able to "snap" out of it.

Texas Part III

Our third leg of our journey was in beautiful East Texas!  We made a pit stop at Grammy and Papa Jones' house first.  We had to go check on Starr and she had her baby!  Jones named him Boots.  We decided to leave Jones with them a couple of days while we had a weekend getaway in Tyler.  We stayed in a very nice hotel, slept in for 2 days, relaxed, hung out with friends and had a cousin night with all of Cody's cousins!

We ended going to a small town restaurant/tavern to watch our friends band play.  They were so good!  I got in some good dancing.  Cody spun me around on the dance floor a few times and we enjoyed small town Saturday night!  The 2 days was much needed and Jones had a fabulous time being spoiled without us!

We then headed to Doodee and Nawna's house!  They have a tire swing now and Jones loves loves loves it!

We went to the zoo one day.  It was SOOOO hot!  Jones had a blast. 

Mrs. Hardy had us over for a swim!

And Nawna had Jones bed covered in Jake and the Neverland Pirates gear!  He slept like a champ in a big boy bed away from home!

Hannah and I had our much needed girl day!  We went shopping, got our toes did and had Chuy's.  I sure do miss this girl!

We were exhausted after our 2 weeks of vacay.  We needed a vacy from our vacay.  Jones was pooped and slept most of the way home.  It took us 8 hours..............we can usually make it in 6, but with a potty trained Lil boy, it calls for more stops!  We had such a good trip this time.  It was long enough to not feel rushed.  It was long enough, to not being constantly on the 'go', to make sure we saw everyone.

It sure was good to get home though.  We have been back for several days now.....I have not cleaned house, I have not been cooking, and I have been extremely lazy.  Jones has been a cuddle bug and I have enjoyed every minute of it!  Cuddle away my child! 

Texas Part II

We decided to actually take a real vacation this year. I wanted to go to the beach and Cody wanted to stay local and spend WAY more money.......  GWL was a fun time though but next time we will go in the off season.  Maybe they won't be say crazy busy.  I figured since we went the week most schools in Dallas started it wouldn't be so busy.....boy, was I wrong!  There were kids everywhere!

Check-in wasn't till 4:00 and we rolled into Grapevine about 12:30.  We found a Freebirds close by and took Jones on his first Freebird adventure.  He gave it a thumbs up!

We decided to go to GWL early and hoped our room would be ready......IT WAS!  We checked in about 1:30. Chillaxed for a bit, then headed to the "water park!"  We didn't swim long because someone had an accident in the pool and they shut down for about an hour.  Jones still had a blast.

He slept in his own Lil bed and stayed there all night!  I think it was so easy getting him to sleep because we didn't go to bed till midnight every night.....but he slept till 10 every morning....SCORE!

The next day we did Legoland and the Aquarium.  He loved them both.  They have a little ride at legoland and he loved it.

He did the jump think in the mall and loved it.  He was so excited watching the other kids go that he just had to do it too.  He was happy the whole time till after the guy hooked him up and he was on is own.  He whined for about 10 seconds and I told him he didn't have to do it, if he didn't want to.  He then stopped crying and just starting jumping.  The guy kept helping him and bouncing him to the ceiling.  I laughed so hard and Jones was all smiles.

We went for a quick dip before dinner!

Jones was not thrilled with the floor you could see through at the aquarium.  He thought he was going to fall in and be eaten by a shark!

We were exhausted by dinner.  We mustered up enough energy to go eat sushi!  Jones fell asleep on the way there, and I figured he would wake up when we got there.  I got that boy out of his car seat and he never woke up.  Our restaurant was very quiet and had dimmed lights.  We requested a booth and laid him down......It felt like date night!  Jones slept the whole time!  It was greatness!

When we got back to our room Jones just wanted to play with his Lego's he got at Legoland.  He played....we relaxed!

That night we were at the hotel for story time.  Jones loved the animation of the animals and the story time!

He loved the "BLUE" slide!

We will definitely be back to GWL.  Jones had a fun time and we did too.  There was plenty to do and we were even able to relax some too. 

Cody had taken Jones to a sporting goods store while we were at my sister's house and he had put a helmet on Jones and Jones just started acting like a football player.  We stopped at another one on the way to East Texas and I wanted to see this in person.  We had a fun 10  minutes and then I couldn't get the helmet off of his head.  I was pulling his head, he was screaming and I was so embarrassed.  Finally a couple of younger kids stop and I ask them how to get helmets off.  They worked their magic and got it off......................I felt like a tard........

Texas Part I

Packing for a 2 week trip, with an almost 3 year old was not fun.  He just couldn't understand why he couldn't bring all 650 of his tractors, all 368 of his trains and a few of his other toys.  We managed to get everything loaded in the car plus Cody's golf clubs and Jones' red chair!

Our first part of our Texas trip was spent in Wylie/Allen.  My older sister got married in Allen.  In her beautiful backyard with just family.  It was really really gorgeous and I finally got some good pics of me and the sisters.  The ceremony was short and sweet and Jones was a gentlemen the whole time!

"Can you get my good side?"

Kisses for Aunt T

Getting more life lessons from Papa Jones!

We stayed with my mom and we ordered pizza one night.  Jones could not understand why we weren't "going" to pick up the pizza.  We kept telling him the pizza man would deliver it.  After 45 minutes of confusion he was a happy guy.  He paid the man, squealed, tipped him then dug in.  His first experience with pizza delivery was a success.