A sad day!

My grandmother passed away around 11pm last night. I'm still trying to take it all in. It was just 2 weeks ago that she was at my house for the Smith Christmas. I can't believe she is already gone. I know she is happy up there watching all of us and catching up with my Papa and MeMe. For now I am at work, trying to make my day as normal as possible. I'm doing ok as long as I keep busy. Her funeral will probably be Monday. I am going to try to work at least half a day, because I don't have any days left to take off. Then I will get docked pay for whatever I have to take off.
As a special Memorial to Mamaw, I have decided that Alexandra and I will be wearing red shoes. My grandmother LOVED red shoes! She took me one time to buy cowboy boots. I came home with 2 pair of boots. One sensible black pair and one pair of red ropers. I loved those red ropers. So in her honor, we will wear red shoes to the funeral with my black outfit. I hope this makes her smile.
Mamaw was the first of a 3 generation tree of only children. There was just her, then just my dad, and finally just me. I broke the string when I had Alexandra. She loved to take me shopping and was at most of my events. Her & Papa were at most of my softball games. In fact I remember one day, they took me to my game because Mom was playing in a game at one field and Dad was playing in a game at another field. I have so many wonderful memories of the days when she was healthy and could really get around. Riley will probably remember riding in her walker or pushing her walker all over.
Many of you had the pleasure of knowing her over the years whether it was through church or just seeing her at birthday parties. She will be missed, but I know that she is comfortable now.

Ice Day!

Want it or not, we had an ice day today! No School! That was fine today, but I will hate it in April when I don't get Good Friday off. The nice thing was all 4 of us were able to stay at home this morning and just play. Randy got up and made pancakes and bacon. Yum! He is so much more of a breakfast person than I am. Riley is usually lucky to get frozen waffles that I threw in the toaster on a good morning, if I am cooking. Then this afternoon I went to visit my grandmother and have a dentist appt.
Yes, my grandmother made it through the night and seems to be getting a little better, although her blood pressure is still really low. But at least I was able to spend about an hour up at the hospital with her. Thank you Lord for allowing me one more day to spend with her.

A heavy heart

It is with a heavy heart that I sit down to post my blog. The dr has called to make sure that family will be with my grandmother tonight. She has been in the hospital with a number of things wrong. I knew in my head that she probably wasn't leaving the hospital, but my heart refused to accept it. So you are asking, why am I sitting here writing instead of being at the hospital? I tried. I made it all the way to the stop sign (about 200 yds from my driveway) and had already slid 3 times. The ice is horrible tonight. So I very slowly turned (slid) around and returned home. Now I just have to sit and wait for the phone to ring. Then I will wake up tomorrow and hope that magically the ice has cleared and we will have school tomorrow.
I know my students would kill me for hoping that we have school tomorrow. But I don't need a break right now. We just had a 4 day weekend. I KNOW that I will desperately need a break come April when we are in the middle of a big TAKS push. So can it please just magically warm up before 6am???
One more thing, Lord, if you need my grandmother home tonight, can you just make it painless and in her sleep? Or maybe we could keep her another night until I can make it to hospital and tell her goodbye?

Sensitive Alex

Alexandra is starting to get so sensitive to the outside world. The other day Nana got on to Riley for something, and she started to cry. She did not like her big brother getting in trouble.
My parents are helping me out on Sunday nights right now. Because my 2 children insist on not letting me get a good night's sleep, my parents are going to take the kids on Sunday nights and then Mom will have them on Monday while I am at work. This way at least one night a week, I don't get waken up 2 times. Plus I can sleep later since I don't have to drive to Hurst to drop the kids off before school. So tonight while I was getting ready to leave, my mom was holding Alex and I kissed her and told her I would see her tomorrow. She puckered up her lip in her pout and then started to cry. When I took her, she immediately stopped. I don't think she wanted her mommy to leave.

A Big Riley!

Last night we were sitting at the dinner table, when Riley decided to tell us the 3 things he wants to be when he grows up.
1. A bigger Riley- (well duh, Mom!)
2. Able to reach things (the candy is stored on top of the fridge)
3. Then he wants to go to work at Daddy's job!

It was so cute. My favorite was a bigger Riley!

Roll over!

Alex rolled over today! We were at my parent's house and she was laying on a pallet on her back. She was laying there just looking around and talking to anyone or anything that would pay attention. All of a sudden she flipped over from her back to her stomach. I was so excited. She didn't seem to even notice. What a big girl she is getting to be!

A Play Day!

I had today off work so we decided to play. This morning we met several mommies from my Sunday School class at a bounce house place called Boomerang's. Riley had so much fun going from one bounce house to the next. After we finished there, we decided to do lunch at McDonald's, where we spent another 30 minutes on the playground making friends. Riley was so good all morning. His only fit was when I made him take a break from playing and go to the restroom. So this afternoon while shopping at Target, my favorite store, I rewarded him with a Minnie Mouse, that he asked for. Yes, the pink is still wearing off.

Smith Christmas

Christmas is now officially over. I know this sounds strange to most of you, but the extended Smith family usually celebrates in January after things have slowed down a little. So today we celebrated Christmas 2008 at our house for the last time. No, I am not crazy enough to still have a tree up, but either way it was nice to spend time with my dad's side of the family and introduce Alex to the family. It was a little bittersweet because I am not sure that my grandmother or great Aunt Lou (the last 2 remaining of that generation) will be around for next year's celebration. Somehow our Smith family is getting smaller rather than larger each year. I think it time for Bryce & Kylie (my 2 younger cousins) to get married and add members to the family! :)
We enjoyed a great lunch catered by Shady Oaks Barbeque, watched some Aggie basketball, and opened presents.

Future college athlete???

Thursday night we were on our way over to a friend's house to watch the National Championship game. Riley asked if we were going to watch Daddy play softball. I told him no, that we were watching football. He thought a second, and then said, "Ball? Like I am going to play when I get older and earn money for college?" I quickly replied that's right baby! Wouldn't that be wonderful?

Favorite toys

I thought I would mention the favorite toys that the kids are playing with right now.
Alex's favorite is a sun that hangs on her car seat. When you press the face it plays "You are My Sunshine." She has learned to press it and chew on the sun "rays". In fact, I had to take it away from her in Sunday School because she pressed it two times & interrupted the lesson.
Riley's favorite toy is his airplane. Santa Claus brought him an airport for his hot wheel cars. It came with a small plastic plane. Now he runs all over the house "flying" his plane.

4 months old!

Alexandra turned 4 months old yesterday! We went & had pictures made. She was so good during the pictures. Smiling and looking coy. Although she did make it clear that she did not want to pose sitting up on her arms & tummy. I was trying to match her big brother's 4 month pose, but oh well. She is her own child. She is so cute the way that she protests. She simply gives a little cry. Then if you don't pay attention, she will do it again. Only if you still don't pay attention will she really cry. This morning, I took her for her check up and shots. Here are her stats:
weight: 12lbs 7oz - 25%percentile
height: 24.5 in - 50-75%
head circumference: 15.5 in - 5-10% (She definitely does not take after her brother!!)
For right now, I am still nursing her, but we are supplementing with 1-2 bottles of formula per day. I am just too busy to keep up with her. :( I am holding off starting cereal or solid foods. She is still quite content with just milk. I think alot of this has to do with her spending the whole Christmas break sick with a bad cold. It really slowed down her eating & progress. But she is beginning to sit in her bumbo chair and start to play with toys.

Not a longhorn!

Randy & I have worked hard to make sure that our children have always worn Aggie maroon on game days & yell touchdown when the Aggies score. So why is it that my daughter wants to suck her fingers like "hook 'em horns"???? Since Alex got sick about 2 weeks ago, she has given up the pacifier. I think it is harder for her to breathe with the pacifier, so now she is a finger sucker. I was really hoping that she would not take after her mommy, who sucked her thumb until she was 4!