The Eley Family

I am so LIVID and I swear I am never shipping via USPS again. i cannot believe how HORRIBLE and unreliable their system and employees have become.

October - bought my son some black cords for Christmas photos/get togethers/etc. - scanned in Atlanta - vanished.

December - bought myself a nice wallet - scanned in Atlanta - vanished.

January - bought party supplies for my daughter’s 5th birthday party - they shipped USPS - scanned in Atlanta - vanished.

January - someone bought something from me, I shipped - scanned in Atlanta - nothing since.

This is absolutely ridiculous. Obviously they have an internal theft issue and what are they doing about? How are they compensating customers? B is going to take ALL my stuff and meet with our postmaster. I am just so flippin’ mad. Maybe emotional too, this morning I almost started crying over my daughter’s lost party supplies. Thank goodness I shop early and have time to re-purchase or try to get the company to re-ship. (I thought they were shipping UPS as it stated on my email receipt)

Anyway - word of caution - ship UPS instead….at least then you can track your package with RELIABLE tracking and KNOW when it’s delivered.

Well I really should keep our blog more up to date. Let’s see…

Peyton just had an accent wall in her room painted and now has the most gorgeous room ever to be inhabited by a 4 year old. She is surrounded by pink, butterflies, flowers and a touch of Disney Princess. It is absolutely adorable! She is getting so big too! She has seriously grown over 2 inches in just 6 months. We were playing with the tape measure today and she’s 44″ tall. Wow. She is enjoying her morning pre-k program and is excited about “big” school next year for kindergarten. Deciding where to send her is very stressful for me. I still am unsure as to what we’ll do for school. Just praying God will lead us in the right direction. She is learning to read now.
Ellis turns 3 in exactly one week. Wow, my little baby is 3!! His speech improves daily and he is such an intelligent boy. He already knows all of his letters and their phonetical sound. He learned the letters before he learned to sing the alphabet song. He makes me smile so much with phrases like “mommy, you’re my best friend” and “mom I so proud of you”. He tells the best stories, prefers hugs to kisses and we really wish would start showing more interest in the potty.

B & I are fabulous - time is flying by so quickly…we’ll celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary in a few months, wow. I can’t believe it’s holiday time again. January 1st, 12:30am will mark 10 years since we met.

I guess you can consider this a catch-up post and I will try to be more diligent in updating. Life is of course very busy…we’re up and out the door for preschool in the morning then the kids join me at the 2BigFeet store to work…then home to play, dinner, bath, bed…repeat. Not much time for anything else. Ellis is REALLY looking forward to his party next weekend and Peyton is excited about our family reunion in 2 weeks, but she is dreading the car ride. She despises being in the car longer than 30 minutes. LOL

Four years ago today…

Mommy woke up at 6:45 in the morning to get ready for work, but she felt like she had peed in the bed. She stood up and realized her water broke. (that meant it was time for you to come out of mommy’s tummy) Daddy was in the shower so I told him what happened, we called the doctor and headed to the hospital. Mommy went up to a nice room and changed into a hospital gown. The nurses put a monitor on my belly so I could hear your beautiful heartbeat. I got some medicine to make me feel better and continued to wait to meet you. You were born at 7:12 that evening.  You were 6 pounds and 12 ounces, 21.5 inches long, blue eyes, hardly any hair. It was the happiest day of my life, we are so very Blessed.

I watched you learn to crawl, learn to walk, learn to talk. You first said “mama” in the bathtub when you were just 6 months old. We celebrated your 1st Birthday at home with a Winnie the Pooh party. You started walking when you were 14 months old.  You helped us welcome Ellis into the world when you were 18 months old. You are such a great big sister!! I love watching you play with Ellis, help him and teach him.

We’ve had so much fun together, going to the Zoo, The Wiggles concerts, Elmo concert, Diego concert, the Aquarium, playing at the park. You celebrated your second birthday at home with Elmo. You celebrated your third birthday at the rec center with Diego. I have enjoyed watching you grow into the gorgeous, smart, witty, funny, sometimes stubborn 4 year old you are today.

Peyton, I love you with every piece of my heart, every fiber of my being. You mean the world to me and I am SO PROUD that God Blessed me with you as a daughter. I hope that you continue to enjoy your precious life and that I can always help to make it more fun, more inspiring, more challenging as you continue to grow.

Mommy loves you so very much. Happy 4th Birthday my Honey Pot!!

10-3-05 was my estimated due date for the arrival of our new baby boy, to be named Ellis Michael or Ellis Wilson, we were still deciding. My contractions started on my due date at about 2:45pm while I was at my mother-in-law’s house picking up Peyton. They stayed consistent for several hours and we went to the hospital about 5:30pm. They monitored me for an hour and said even though I was contracting every 3 minutes I was not in active labor so they sent me home. I was not happy…my second child and you’re sending me home with contractions this close together? Yes, the on-call ob obviously didn’t want to go to the hospital. Grrrrr… So Brandon and I stopped at Cracker Barrell to pick up dinner where I remember leaning over the counter and the employee said “you’re not in labor, are you?” to which I replied “yes actually I am”…then she asked why I wasn’t at the hospital. LOL So we came home to eat. Peyton was at our house with my mom and grandmother. I couldn’t eat, I just had no appetite b/c of the pain. I tried laying on the couch, but it hurt too much so I tried taking a bath instead. My mom left to run some errands and I soaked for a few minutes. I got up out of the tub and my water broke, yay! Not so much yay for the closet floor, but oh well.  So we called my mom and told her to come back QUICKLY so we could head back to the hospital once again. Man I would’ve rather been at the hospital if they had just kept me and given me my epidural by now! So mom FINALLY got here and took Peyton to my mother-in-law’s and we got checked back into the hospital around 9:30pm. I was now at 5cm. (I was a 2 when they sent me home a few hours before) I was begging for the epi at this point, the contractions were coming one right after another and I was so pale from the pain. They kept saying they had to wait on labs…wouldn’t have that problem if that had kept me. Anyway….FINALLY get the epidural closer to 11pm. I thought for sure they wouldn’t make it in time. I think they called the on call ob after midnight, closer to the time they knew I was ready. I didn’t think he’d make it in either. So Ellis, my beautiful baby boy, was born JUST after his due date - 1:17am after less than 30 minutes of pushing. He was laid on my chest immediately, something I missed greatly with Peyton. My big boy was here…and has gotten ever-so-much bigger since that day two years ago.

Ellis, you are such a blessing to us, named after your paternal grandfather, Ellis Kirby Burroughs and of course after your daddy and Pawpaw. (for the Michael part of your name) I love watching you grow and learn new things. I can’t wait to observe and help you learn and grow over the next year. Mommy loves you very much.

Happy 2nd Birthday to my chunky monkey man!

Ommy was brought to the animal hospital where I worked as a vet tech in September 1999 with his 9 siblings to be euthanized. The puppies were too demanding on the mom and she was being very aggressive toward them and not letting them eat. I chose one to take home with me and fed him puppy formula in a bottle for 4 weeks as he was only 2 weeks old at the time I adopted him.

Ommy lived with my then bf (now DH) and I in an apartment where he grew from the size of a beanie baby to the size of me. He got too big for our apartment and I had a fence built in my grandmother’s backyard for him.

We bought out house in December 2003 and Ommy came home with us in a fence I built for him in our backyard. He’s such a puppy, always acted so enthusiastic, once literally lifted me off the front steps of my grandmother’s house b/c he was so ready to bolt outside for a walk. (yes, it hurt when I finally hit the ground) He was a great dog who learned to sit and lie down for me on my command.

In March 2006 we bought him a little friend, a new black labrador retriever. At first as she got older she would get a little feisty guarding her food, but the two soon became good friends.

Ommy had what I believed to be an abscess on his side a couple months ago and I took him into the vet. They surgically removed it and found it to be cancerous. The outlying tissue had no cancer cells so they were pretty sure they got it all. About 2-3 weeks ago I noticed the tumor was re-growing in the same area and there were also about 2-3 small growths all on his right side, but they weren’t getting too large so I just continued to keep an eye on him. Over this past weekend Ommy did something to his toe, it had become swollen so I called yesterday to take him into the vet. I dropped him off this morning, I was in a hurry b/c I had to drop DD off at preschool and get to a dermatologist appt for myself and was running late. I hurriedly left him, just telling him to go with the girl who picked him up. He didn’t really seem to want to turn his head, I wonder if he knew he wasn’t going to see me again.

I went in to check on him later and was told they hadn’t gotten to him yet. We got a phone call after 6pm that his toe was infected up to the bone and that they needed to remove his entire toe to get out the infection. That news was followed by the news that in addition to the re-growths on his side he also had a large growth on his stomach. DH got off the phone with the vet to talk to me and the vet ran tests, called back and said the toe was not cancerous, but both the stomach and side masses were cancer. The stomach mass was the size of a softball and was inoperable. It was also quite possibly why Ommy hasn’t really eaten the past 3 days. (dogs generally have smaller appetites in the heat of summer so I didn’t give it too much thought)

So here I sat with a decision to make…he was still under anesthesia from the prep for surgery on his toe. I had a cat once who had leukemia and I did treat her with chemotherapy which seemed to just prolong her pain. The vet said if Ommy made it 6 more months he’d be surprised. I decided to let them put him to sleep b/c I didn’t want him to suffer anymore from not eating or if the cancer was in his bone or organs. The vet agreed it was a wise choice, but why the hell does it hurt so much?? I couldn’t bear the thought of being there while they did it so I didn’t go in. I didn’t want them to wake him up from the anesthesia just to put him back to sleep and my mom couldn’t make it there in time to be with him either…not before the anesthesia wore off…so my poor baby passed away alone, surrounded by strangers.

Tomorrow morning I go to pick him up and bury him in my mom’s Pet Sematary on her property.

Ommy —— 8/25/99 - 7/26/07

Well, how long has it been…

Brandon and I bought out his old business partner and have been husband/wife teaming 2BigFeet.com since that time. We decided to open a storefront and warehouse our own inventory so we’ve moved it all back to LaGrange and that’s where Ellis and I go every morning after dropping Peyton off for preschool. So between that and spending time with the kids (aside from Brandon’s FT job) we are busy, busy, busy!

We attended a wedding this past weekend, CONGRATULATIONS to our friends Lance & Diana who are hopefully enjoying an awesome honeymoon right now. We had the DJ play our song…our first dance song from our wedding…’Amazed’ by Lonestar. For a brief 3 minutes it was like no one else was in the room but us…we were just lost in each other’s arms. It’s amazing to still be so in love after 9 years of dating and 5.5 years of marriage. He truly is my soul mate.

So, in short, life is just awesome for us. We’re looking to finally get my Honda Pilot in the coming months and will likely move into a bigger house within the next 2-3 years. We need a guest room again for Aunt Tonia & Uncle Paul.

I’m sure we’ll update again soon as Ellis’ 2nd birthday is quickly approaching and we’ll have yet another Wiggles concert!

Hope you’re all doing well!!

Well, we thought it was Spring, borderline Summer with temperatures nearing 90 degrees…now a cold front? Peyton and I both have sleeveless dresses to wear for Easter and it’s in the 40s right now. Yikes!

Peyton turned 3 on March 10th. She had a family celebration on her birthday at our home then a big party on the 11th. She had so much fun! Her first birthday party of really having a bunch of friends and playing. Ellis had a blast too and now they’re both helping me plan Ellis’ 2nd birthday party. Her theme was Diego and she wore an awesome custom Diego outfit. If you missed her party you really missed out, she had a blast!

We just had another birthday pass…my grandfather was born April 4, 1918. He passed away July 3, 2001, but we still miss him and think about him often. He practically raised me so he was more like a dad to me than a grandfather. I miss that my kids will never get to meet him, he was an awesome man.

In other news, 2BigFeet is keeping me very busy! Peyton is in a Christian Church Pre-school program 2 days a week and is loving it!! Ellis stays home as he isn’t quite ready to leave mommy yet. My grandmother comes over and plays with him while I work from our home office. Brandon is busy working for a web design firm in town. We’re discussing getting our house ready to sell over the next year…we really need a 4 bedroom. We also plan to trade in the truck in the next few months to get me a new Honda Pilot. I can’t wait to have 3 rows of seats!!

So the surprise party for my grandmother is set…February 24th at 4:30pm at the Fellowship Hall at FBC. We have the food set up, just have to get all the small stuff and the invitations done.

 Peyton’s party was set to be zoo/safari animals, but the girl LOVES Diego so we are transforming it into an Animal Rescue Center party! I’m excited too. Her custom birthday outfit will now have Diego in it somehow and her cake shirt is a Sparklie that will read “Animal Rescuer” on the front and have a “3″ on the back. We’ll still use all the animal favors we have, but we’ll do Diego balloons & Diego cupcakes. So now I need to find invitations and call the local farm to see if we can have the party there. I hope it isn’t too much to do it there…we’d have pony rides, a petting zoo & a playground, what fun!

Well life is good!! Brandon and I just celebrated 8 years from the day we met…we actually watched a movie by ourselves without the kids! Best of all it was on a projector screen without those annoying theatre people…just the 2 of us.

2007 will bring about many milestones this year…we celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary in one month…my grandmother will turn 70 in February…Peyton 3 in March…MIL 50 in May…I celebrate the bit 3-0 in August and Ellis will be 2 in October.

We’ve been very blessed with a great job, great house, great kids & a great husband. In 2007 we hope it may bring a bigger house for all the kids’ toys & books. Brandon just got a new car so we hope to buy me a new Honda Pilot this year. I’d love to have 3 rows of seating so we can have more room & have people be able to fit in the car with us.

 We hope 2007 brings all of you happiness & good health!!

Christmas was fun of course…visiting, chatting, eating. We now need a bigger house. Let’s see the kids need a playroom dedicated to toys and they need a library for their book collections. Peyton’s most used gift right now is her Fisher Price Kid Tough digital camera. She is taking pictures of EVERYTHING! It sure is nice not to have her trying to steal my camera now. They’ve switched some gifts…Peyton likes playing with Ellis’ V-tech workshop and he likes playing with her Diego field journal & V-tech laptop. They got too much to even mention, but they love it all. Our family room and both their bedrooms are just filled with tons of fun! We should move out Ellis’ crib since he doesn’t sleep in it and make that the playroom. hehe Too bad it isn’t twice as big as it is.

So now onto other things…Brandon is currently test driving a mini cooper which means I will be driving the truck and we’ll sell our car. If things go well we will aquire full ownership of one of his businesses and trade the truck in for my new Honda Pilot. I need more room and would LOVE to get a Pilot, even a 2006 is fine. Anyone? Late Christmas gift? No? Oh well.

So since my grandmother can’t even turn on a computer it’s safe to post that we are planning a SURPRISE 70th birthday party for her so SHHHHHH keep it a secret!! So I’m into planning that right now as well as Peyton’s 3rd birthday party. Her party is a zoo/safari animal theme so I’m looking into having it at a local farm so we can have a petting zoo and pony rides. It’ll be so much fun! (for the kids of course)

That’s about it from our world. I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and Happy New Year to all!! May we all have peace, joy, love, happiness, health and a little green in 2007!